Harry Potter - the books you loved, the characters and general discussion

[jpfizzle]

Harry Potter, the series that inspired a whole world of children to start reading... set in a world so vivid that it is almost impossible to discover all the intricate details of it. A series that made characters so loveable that you felt for them, worried for them, and in the right cases hated them... discuss all things Harry Potter in here.

Personal view: Best characters:

Fred and George Weasley; the masters of the one liner "Harry- I thought I heard your dulcet (sp?) tones" and the creators of Weasleys Wizards Wheezes, a shop that inspired a nation of wizards to start laughing again.

Lupin; who didn't love Lupin, a warewolf with a heart who would die for the ones he loved, a former defence against the dark arts teacher and a founding member of the makers of the Marauders map.

Luna Lovegood; arguably the most underrated character on earth, once you get past the craziness her words are so amazingly powerful that they save Harry time and time again... (to Harry feeling alone) "I think that's how you know who wants you to feel, when you are alone you are more vulnerable" (please note, not direct quote it was along those lines.

come back tommorow and I'll do places.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

I don't want to ruffle any feathers over here. But Harry Potter is god awful. I can't even get past the first chapter in any of the books. The characters are waaaayyy to out there. The situations are ridiculous, and the plots...to me are awful.

But that may not be the case at all as to why I don't like it. Maybe Rowling wrote the book in such a way that It doesnt appeal to me. The movies were also pretty bad In my opinion as well. I really can't pinpoint the reason why I don't like it. I don't condemn anybody for reading these books. Because if you were to read some of the books I am into you would probably think I am crazy.

 

[jpfizzle]

Intrestignly we had a discussion one English lesson about wether or not JK Rowling is a good writer in comparisson to say Emily Bronte and Dickens etc... We came to the conclusion that she has a great imagination but she isn't as great a writer, she is a fantastic mainstream writer and the books and the stories write themselves from the deep world she created, once you get a grip on the world the stories are alot more appealing, an escape... yet it is not for everyone... I believe it is you Monkey who likes psychotic thrillers where as they don't appeal to me as I find them depressing... It is fantastic that everyones reading tastes are diffren't or the world would be a dull place.

With Harry Potter, love them or hate them, one must appreciate that they are a staple part of modern pop culture. They inpired children to read which can only be a good thing. Only time will tell if they can survive the test of time but I for one look forward to reading them to my kids, and hoping my kids read them to there kids and so on..

 

[HBK-aholic]

Beccas view on the books​

These contain spoilers, if someone hasn't read the books but plan to, don't read this.

Philsophers Stone
A great book. This is the book that started all. Looking back now it seems so 'innocent'. No one could have imagined the darkness behind everything. It starts everything off, and introduces the characters in a great way. The Philosophers stone is legendary. My favourite is the Mirror of Erised. I love how he sees his family, and retrieves the stone this way. Voldemore is by far the best 'evil' being out of any book I have ever read.

Chamber of Secrets
It seemed the books kept getting better. I love the whole idea that a room in the castle could be hidden from everyone. By far the best part of this book is parsletongue. A voice only he could hear? Amazing. Nothing short of it. I could never has guessed that it would be a snake, and that only he, Harry could understand it. The basilisk was a great creature. Petrifying someone from a look? Great work.

Prisoner of Azkaban
This stayed by best book until the 5th book was released. Due to how great it was. The dementors are by far my favourite 'creatures'. But more on that later. Hermione is great in this book. Her Time Turner is amazing, and so is the way she and Harry use it towards the end to save Sirius. Including Sirius is awesome. He's briefly mentioned in the first book. A great example of Rowlings planning.

Goblet of Fire
Loved it. Just not as much as Azkaban. The beginning when discussing the Riddles is great. Makes you wonder how it all links in. Something we find out in the Half Blood Prince. The Triwizard tournament is great. You just knew Harry would somehow be chosen. Add in his fight with Ron, and crush on Cho and it's a classic, mixing magic with the real world. The graveyard scene is haunting. Voldemorts return is something everyone had feared. I love the introduction of Mad Eye Moody. As a fake, this is still great.

Order of the Pheonix
I had a favourite, once again. Could this book have been any better? It was the longest but I wouldn't have it any way. Occlumency lessons were great, and with Harry finding things out about his father his life ebcomes even worse. Rowling portrays this perfectly, as all he really is, is a boy who needs to fill the void in him. The Prophecy is something I love. Is it Neville? It has you wondering right until the end. Sirius' death is painful for everyone. Harrys only chance at a parent figure got taken awa so cruely and prematurely.

Half Blood Prince
Hands down, one of the best books I have ever read. In fact only one will ever beat it. Horcruxes. Wow. Who ever would have known about this? No one, and I mean no one saw this coming, and it truely is a great invention of Rowlings. The memories seen with Dumbledore are a great thing. I loved thinking of a younger Dumbledore. And Harry takes all this information in. Even goes with him to find another horcrux. His death is by far one of the saddest things I have ever read. I was in tears at the end.

Deathly Hallows
Snape. Wow is all I can say. Never in 5 hundred million years did I see this coming. He was in love with Lily. But he was the one he got them killed in theory. Omg. The memory at the end, during his death literally breaks my heart. All this hatred for Snape was unfounded. I actually felt awful for hating him in between the 2 books. And Voldemort is finally dead. For a second, I thought Harry was the one who was going to be killed. He was the last horcrux. Neither can live while the other survives. Brilliant. How she tied everything up. You can't know the books until you have read this. There are no loose ends, nothing. An amazing book. Cannot praise it enough. Harry's a hero and Voldemort is dead.

 

[Eternal Dragon]

It took me a while to get into Harry Potter, the fourth book was already out by the time I started reading it, but after a while I was completely enamored with it. It's true that it's easy, especially after reading the first couple of books, to get attached to the characters and the surrounding situations they are in. The first character that I really loved besides Harry, was Ginny. Ever since I read that tiny part in the first book where she ran after the train I was really interested in her and Rowling did not disappoint when it came to giving her depth, especially after the second and fifth book. Neville, Luna, Ron, Hermione, and Draco also became favorites of mine.

My favorite books were the third, fifth, and the seventh. The third was one of the first books where we learned more about Harry's past and his parents. Sirius turned out be another one of my favorite characters. Like Snape you could just tell he was one of those characters that wouldn't get their typical happy ending and maybe that's what I liked most about them. I think I liked the fifth book the best because it was well written, more so than the others. There were some really unique points in the book, from how Aunt Petunia acted when she got the Howler (and I have a firm belief that Rowling did so little with her character throughout the books), the Sorting Hat's song, how we finally began to realize that Hogwarts and Dumbeldore were not as perfect as we thought they were, and of course the Prophecy at the end. And I don't think I can say anything about the seventh book that hasn't been said before. I liked the fact that the ending wasn't predictable and that's hard to do after seven books. Every sign pointed to Harry's inevitable death, but that didn't happen, and it blew me away. A great ending to a great series.

Flames Out
Dragon

 

[Monkey_Mania]

Intrestignly we had a discussion one English lesson about wether or not JK Rowling is a good writer in comparisson to say Emily Bronte and Dickens etc... We came to the conclusion that she has a great imagination but she isn't as great a writer, she is a fantastic mainstream writer and the books and the stories write themselves from the deep world she created, once you get a grip on the world the stories are alot more appealing, an escape... yet it is not for everyone... I believe it is you Monkey who likes psychotic thrillers where as they don't appeal to me as I find them depressing... It is fantastic that everyones reading tastes are diffren't or the world would be a dull place.

With Harry Potter, love them or hate them, one must appreciate that they are a staple part of modern pop culture. They inpired children to read which can only be a good thing. Only time will tell if they can survive the test of time but I for one look forward to reading them to my kids, and hoping my kids read them to there kids and so on..

Exactly, I wont say that Harry Potter is not a Pop Culture phenomenon because he certainly is. I just didnt like the way the books were written. Rowling had an incredible vision, but for me, she couldnt get it down right on paper. I like you said love Psychotic thrillers or just thrillers in general. It is my preference. That does not mean I don't read fantasy novels though. I just never got into the whole Harry Potter thing, and it is probably because of the way the books were written.

 

[Danmen001]

I was really hooked into the Harry Potter books, I didn't start reading them until all of the books came out though. When I read them I thought they were great but they weren't written that well on paper, as Monkey said. Especially the last one. Aside from that they really made me want to read more books.

The characters that I got into most were:

Harry Potter: What's a good book without an enjoyable main character.

Dumbledore: Wise dude. I always like the mentor characters in books. Although he isn't an open gay, I don't respect gays who aren't open about it. (Lol joking.)

Voldemort: He does his job in making me dislike him, which brings emotion into the book.

I couldn't get into some characters though, like Ron in particular.

 

[Dark Blaze]

Ah Harry Potter, a series of books I got into when I was like what...9? 8? Can't even remember, all I know is when I read the first book, I was hooked. I think I've read each of the earlier books up to 5 at least 20 times, I loved them so much, almost each time picking up on something I missed out on before, ( when I read the first time, I read the book quickly picking up the main points but not usually sub-plots etc.).

My favorites had to be the fourth, sixth and seventh....don't get me wrong, I loved OOTP but Harry got on my nerves half the time, I understand that he was dealing with the loss of Cedric, but that was some fucked up teenage angst dude Anyway, the main thing in OOTP was Harry losing Sirius and finding out that he had to be the one to kill the most evil and powerful dark wizard ever. Losing Sirius was the first step in Harry learning to stand up on his own and not depend on authority figures as much, losing Dumbledore was the next step. And though, I wanted to cry when Dumbledore died, I knew it was necessary...However, unlike everyone, I disliked some parts of Dumbledore's character. I hate master manipulaters, there was not much difference between what Dumbledore was doing and what Voldie was doing, they both treated people as pawns. The only differences IMO was that Dumbledore probably regretted it and that Voldie was more bold about it...still disliked Dumbledore.

If I was Harry, after seeing exactly how manipulated my life was so that certain events occurred, I would have taken some of my friends, go to another country and just say "Fuck the wizarding world" but Alas, and thank God, Harry isn't me.

Anyway, it was a great series, with a lovely ending though I still think it was too simple, I was expecting some great wizarding battle for the ages. And there were times I was disappointed with Harry; the most evil dark wizard was on your tail, and you barely make any effort to better yourself? It's like once he found out about the Hallows, he just said "fuck training"...talk about preparation.

Anyway, great series, can't wait for the other movies.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Beccas view on the characters​

Severus Snape
By far my favourite character. I love the way Rowling has slowly built him up, concealing so much, yet hinting there is a story behind him. At the end, we are not let down. This is a charcter of so many emotions, all of which Rowling portrays excellently.

Harry Potter
You can't have a favourite charcters list without him being on it. The amount of emotions I have for him are neverending. You really are on a rollercoaster with him. Seeing him go through so much, it's hard not to form an attatchment to him. As well as normal teenage things, he goes through so much, and his life is endangered each and every year he's there.

Hermione Granger
Love her. There was a time at school when I was referred to as 'Hermione' for whatever reason. But she's a great character. My favourite part with her is book 7, seeing how upset she is when she talks about her parents not knowing they have a daughter.

Fred and George Weasley
Inject some much needed humour into some of the darkest books. They're a great way to lighten the mood, and Rowling did a great job adding them in the way she did.

 

[Dark Blaze]

Beccas view on the characters​

Hermione Granger
Love her. There was a time at school when I was referred to as 'Hermione' for whatever reason. But she's a great character. My favourite part with her is book 7, seeing how upset she is when she talks about her parents not knowing they have a daughter.

Hermione IS a great character, who used to get on my bloody nerves at time, she was just so uptight with morals and such that just used to piss me off. Hermione is one of those people that is clearly book-smart and book-smart alone, if it's not in a respectable book, she easily dismissed them. That's how narrow-minded she was and even Dumbledore knew that and used it to his advantage, using her to hinder Harry on the quest for the Hallows.

However, any character I basically detested was Ginny, would someone care to explain to me how after 5 years of seeing her as just Ron's little sister, how Harry suddenly just became so enamored with her? I just think it was just...random, then he's suddenly in love with her and then they get married. I just never like her character, her short temper, her passion I guess people could say, just got on my nerves. But I guess, what JK Rowlings put in there, we just gotta take it.

Another thing I just found out by reading the Wiki page about the Deathly Hallows book is that apparently Rowlings has put out the info that "in her mind" Dumbledore was gay. Now I don't have any problem with homosexuals but does anyone think that this is just a bit out there and completely? Even if Dumbles used to dress flamboyantly, it was all attributed to his eccentricities not his hidden homosexuality. But now, he was in love with his best friend, wow.

In my opinion, I just feel JK threw that out there for some more attention and to make her books "politically correct" so to say, I mean doesn't this put it into question the many private talks with Harry? Maybe Rita Skeeter was right about Harry's relationship with dumbles being more than what meets the eye. I have no problem with her making him "gay" but I just think it was just a tad unnecessary.

 

[Booyaka]

I think Harry Potter's boring. So he finds out that he's a wizard after years of thinking that he's "normal". Big deal. He then goes to a scholl which is for wizards which is run by a man who looks like a child molester. then he gets all excited abut a flying broom because its the best around. woopty fecking doo! then this "Voldemort" pish. His scar gets sore because he can see voldemort or something in that region, he then proceeds to trying to beat him with his wand! i dont care if it is for children, if you want to kill him stab him or something and don't gbive me none of this "immortal" pish because its BS. The only good thing that has come out of the films is Hermoine

 

[HBK-aholic]

I think Harry Potter's boring. So he finds out that he's a wizard after years of thinking that he's "normal". Big deal. He then goes to a scholl which is for wizards which is run by a man who looks like a child molester. then he gets all excited abut a flying broom because its the best around. woopty fecking doo! then this "Voldemort" pish. His scar gets sore because he can see voldemort or something in that region, he then proceeds to trying to beat him with his wand! i dont care if it is for children, if you want to kill him stab him or something and don't gbive me none of this "immortal" pish because its BS. The only good thing that has come out of the films is Hermoine

Proves to me you don't understand the books. Simply stabbing Voldemort would not have done the trick. Did you see in the Half Blood Prince how quicly Snape fixed Malfoys wounds? And that was after he'd been CURSED. A wizard can heal a simple cut in seconds, stabbing him would have been unrealistic as well as boring.

Furthemore, Harry had to collect the Horcruxes before he could ever attempt killing Voldemort. The 7th book portrays this journey to find them all.

 

[Booyaka]

Proves to me you don't understand the books. Simply stabbing Voldemort would not have done the trick. Did you see in the Half Blood Prince how quicly Snape fixed Malfoys wounds? And that was after he'd been CURSED. A wizard can heal a simple cut in seconds, stabbing him would have been unrealistic as well as boring.

Furthemore, Harry had to collect the Horcruxes before he could ever attempt killing Voldemort. The 7th book portrays this journey to find them all.

I didn't understand a word you just said. I stopped reading them and watching them after the second one. and im glad. because what you just said sounds really boring to me.If i can't get to sleep and i really need to i think i'll just watch a harry potter movie