Harry Potter Six

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would sell, no doubt about that, raking 8.9 million units on its first release day. As the market saturates with a copy of the book for each of its skeptic fanbase, I have yet to find a very satisfied muggle with regards to their reading experience on the magical 6th year journey of heroes Harry, Ron, and Hermione in Hogwarts. I had started a draft of this blog on Tuesday, August 2, originally containing my detailed disgust for what I got for waiting. This happens to be a much mellow version.

I probably thought that this was the worst Harry Potter yet because it seemed so stretched while containing a mediocre number of things we have all heard of in the previous books. Let's have Petrificus Totalus as an example. The spell was chanted 5 times in the entire book with Harry outnumbering Malfoy's 4 to 1 (I counted it all and here's the proof: Malfoy uttered it once in the coach to Harry, while Harry said it twice in the lake to the Inferi, once to the last Death Eater who exited the tower when Dumbledore died, and once for Fenrir. It was never said by anyone else in HBP)! I was also wondering whether six years in a wizarding school only taught Harry a handful of spells, with Sectum Sempra as the only addition I could recall. It would be definitely frustrating for the professors, had they been real students.

The way Rowling threw in love all over the pages did make HBP different from the first 5 books. As an officemate-fan would put it, HBP is so Sweet-Valley-High-ishly love smitten to make it seem like we were served a cup of coffee with 3-tablespoonfuls of sugar in it. This should get a mixed reaction in itself because not everyone gets tickled by love angles that get axed in just a few page turns (think of what Harry got).

The merits of the book would be how Weasley's Wizard Wheezes turned out. I would not have thought it to be a big hit with a more mature market (with the way the Ministry got their patented jinx-repelling shield hats in bulk). Add to that the discussions about apparating, where our heroes finally got to do it save for Ron.

More importantly, we are treated to a get-to-know flashback on Lord Voldemort and how he came to be as he is, which leads us to the Hor-fucking-cruxes!

Sixteen long years from the birth of Harry's lightning like scar and Dumbledore could only speculate that it existed, pending Slughorn's very important memory which I thought would not have mattered much because he was on to tracing and destroying the items from the start. It is Dumbledore's characteristic to keep secrets and giving out details in trickles, so at least he's in consistent with the pensieve scenes.

We were expectant of something big of a magnitude that could make us itch to know how to bend time and get to the last installment of the story already. Maybe the great expectation's what got me, personally. The pacing of the previous books were quite ok taking as an example the way Harry led the DA in book 5 which made him seem more mature and in control. But then we come to the part when Snape could read his thoughts like a bright flashing billboard and consequently counter his spells despite him learning and being trained for Occlumency, which is a tragedy in itself. It feels as though his skills were reduced to that of a mere novice. Either that or Rowling wants to make him look like a moron.

Dumbledore's death is frustrating. Not much drama in it to make it really worth it. Although much had been speculated that it was not a real curse that Snape had hurled him, and that his death was just a ploy, but an Unbreakable Vow could have killed Snape had he done that. It isn't much that I hated the plot for turning out as it did, but the book is being read by millions of kids all over the world. How could someone write of complete trust in a children's book that would subsequently be shattered?! That just isn't right! Though Snape seemed a bad person from the start, taking in qualities of eternal hatred for James and the gang and making Harry an object for the revenge, the trust of his colleagues should not have been played around with, not for all the children to read! It would not have mattered that much if Book 7 is to be released in a few week's time, hoping that it contains a redeeming explanation for all these, but the negative idea will linger in innocent minds for a few years, pending its release, and a very important virtue would already have been smitten with irreversible consequences! A responsible person of power, such as a very famous writer, should know this!

Lastly, everyone would note that Year 6 is written in the spine of the current HP book, which would stand for the level Harry and his classmates would be on in the story. Not much point to it should Harry push through with not going to school in the next term to put in Yeat 7, not?

(sigh) I am just very much saddened and depressed right now.

posted by Fritz @ 10:31 PM