Re: Harry Potter

In message <5gpdq0F3b7en6U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sean O'Hara <seanohara@xxxxxxxxx> writes
In the Year of the Golden Pig, the Great and Powerful Jacey Bedford
declared:

Semi plotspoiler question
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Was it just me or was Hagrid mightily underused in the last book?


It is impossible to underuse Hagrid -- giving him one line is too
much. I'm guessing he's the character that Rowling mentioned giving
a reprieve to -- his getting dragged away by giant spiders would've
been a perfectly fit and ironic end for him, but then he turns up
alive to carry Harry back to Hogwarts.

I'm just grateful we didn't get more with the giants -- when I
reread the series last month, I skipped over the "What Hagrid Did on
His Summer Vacation" chapter in OotP because I find it so incredibly
boring, and it turns out nothing in there amounted to much.

Order of the Phoenix is my least favourite book because I have little sympathy for Harry's whingeing teenager phase. I thought the film actually improved on the book.

The
giants show up for the final battle and do some damage, but it
doesn't really amount to much.

Hagrid's use as a character has always been a stable and steadfast friend for HP. What he actually achieves is usually of lesser note except in the first book where he removes Harry from the Dursleys and scares them shitless. The giant brother was a bit of a bore.

But I still like hagrid - whether that's partly due to Robbie Coltrane's imprint on the character i don't know.

Like - how can you not sympathise with Snape when he's played by Alan Rickman - even though Snape is supposed to be 34 in the book and Rickman is at least 50?

And I liked Dumbledore in the first couple of movies (Richard Harris) but the change of actor meant that he lost my sympathy completely after that. It's difficult to separate the characters in the later books with their on screen counterparts. They should have had Tom Baker as Dumbledore - he would have been brilliant!! I'd _care_ if they killed off Tom Baker. I won't give a toss when they kill off Michael Gambon. I might even cheer.

But though I can pick holes in all of HP, I still - overall - like it enough to read all the books and watch all the movies.

Jacey
--
Jacey Bedford
jacey at artisan hyphen harmony dot com
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