Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince Reviews and *SPOILERS*

[DisneyRoxMySox]

That is odd. Even stranger is that Magonagle didn't say anything about it either. That would have definately been reported to the Head of the House.

It did say the Snape had told all the staff, at least thats what McGonnagal (sp, too lazzy to get book to look it up) said to Harry, the only reason I can think of, was if Dumbledore wasn't at Hogwarts and didn't return for a few days, but wouldn't he know of Harry's detentions?

 

[TheOneVader]

That is odd. Even stranger is that Magonagle didn't say anything about it either. That would have definately been reported to the Head of the House.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought McGonagall (Wow, you were way off ) did in fact talk to him about it.

 

[DisneyRoxMySox]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought McGonagall (Wow, you were way off ) did in fact talk to him about it.

She did, stated above in my post. Still spelt wrongly though...

 

[Number_6]

also, to the people talking about the spell in GoF and how the spell attempted to kill harry wasnt present in the last spells, a horcrux cant possible be created wihtout a spell either, so then if harry is one, how come that spell didnt come out? I think JK was rushed, and pretty much only used avadra kedavra(s). Becuase, if you're going to get all touchy about it, and say that it shows any spell, those killings were pretty spread out. you're trying to say that he never used simple spells and did osmehting other than kill people.

What I'm saying is that we don't know exactly the process for creating a Horcrux, only that you have to commit a murder. That's it. We don't have any other real info on it. Now the interview that we have the link to, she said that James definitely had to die, but Voldy was willing to spare Lily. Why? Because if the idea was to have Harry's scar be the location of a Horcrux, then he would need to make sure that Harry would be well taken care of, and Lily would have taken great care of Harry. Beyond a murder, we don't know if the rest of creating a Horcrux takes use of magic from the wand at all. If it is a form of wandless magic, then that spell would not have come out from the wand during "Priori Incantatum."

As far as the spacing out of the last few spells to come from the wand, "Priori Incantatum" was used just after Voldemort had finally risen again. So, the most recent spell was that which gave Wormtail his new silver hand. There was a smoky hand that came out, so that's one spell. Then came Cedric Diggory. He was killed using Voldy's wand by Wormtail. Prior to that, the caretaker of the old Riddle estate was killed using Voldy's wand, again, I think Wormtail was the one that cast it. Prior to that, the use of the wand was due to Professor Quirrell, who was the first one to find out that Voldemort lived and since Bertha Jorkins was finding out too much, a spell was cast from Voldy's wand to kill her. The last time his wand was in use prior to that, was the night the Potters were murdered. He couldn't use it for anything else after that because he was a non-corporeal entity. There was nothing for him to hold it with or necessarily speak things properly with no mouth. So really, it made sense with all the spacing out. There wasn't anyone that thought he had survived at all until Quirrell bonded with him and then after that he didn't have a shot at coming back until Wormtail rejoined him and aided him.

 

[FutureCEO]

to get this party started again....the 7 horcruxes are

1. Locket (RAB has it somewhere)
2. Slytherin Ring (Dumbledore destroyed it)
3. Riddle's Diary (Harry destroyed it)
4. Hufflepuff Cup
5. Ravenclaw?
6. Voldmorts Snake
7. Voldmort Himself

 

[stitch rocks]

i still can't believe the dumbledore died... i don't want to believe it. but man what an awesome book tho...

 

[CaptainMichael]

Part 2 of the interview is up on The Leaky Cauldron. JKR's answers continue to point to Snape being evil!

 

[garyhoov]

Part 2 of the interview is up on The Leaky Cauldron. JKR's answers continue to point to Snape being evil!

I think the only evil one is JKR. :lol:

Okay, I've been reading with my family, so I've been going sort of slow, but I got to curiou so I jumped ahead on my own to finish.

Great book! Definitely my favorite so far. At the beginning, I was a little annoyed that Harry still seemed to be acting like a 12 year old, but he seemed to do a lot of growing in a short time.

I haven't been keeping up with all the theories, so I apologize if I state the obvious, but here's my wild speculation:

Dumbledore's dead and not coming back (at least in any sort of living form). The idea of him being connected to Fawkes certainly opens up some opportunities, but I've always said he has to die so that Harry can face Voldemort alone. Bringing him back now would cheapen Book 6.

I'd like to think Snape was pure evil. It would make things simple and more fun when Harry kicks his a$$, but there's one absolute clue that he's not:

He pleads with Snape: "Severus . . . please"

Dumbledore would never plead for his life. He had to have been pleading for him to kill him.

That leaves the question of what Dumbledore knew and when he knew it. I suspect both he and Snape knew what was going on from the beginning, and Dumbledore had actually told Snape to make the unbreakable vow with at least some idea of how things would shake out and a belief that Snape's insight into Voldemort was more important than his own life.

People to watch:

Mundungus - what purpose did he serve? He seemed to pop up for no real reason, but everything has a reason, doesn't it? Could he have at least one of the horcruxes?

The Barman at the Hogs Head - I've always felt there was something more to this character than we've seen. I remember thinking that he was Dumbledore's brother in an early book, and he was with snape when they came into the room after the prophecy, and Dumbledore made a comment about getting imformation from the "barmen you know".

 

[Number_6]

Part 2 of the interview is up on The Leaky Cauldron. JKR's answers continue to point to Snape being evil!

Well the thing is, when she goes to answer something that if she answered outright would end up giving away too much, she always answers so that it could be taken a few ways. So on one hand, she can make it sound like he's evil, but on the other hand she can make it sound like she's trying to throw people off the track of him not being evil. She's answered things like that before and it turned out to be a different direction than it sounded then. We'll see what happens, though.

 

[S_Grise]

Well the thing is, when she goes to answer something that if she answered outright would end up giving away too much, she always answers so that it could be taken a few ways. So on one hand, she can make it sound like he's evil, but on the other hand she can make it sound like she's trying to throw people off the track of him not being evil. She's answered things like that before and it turned out to be a different direction than it sounded then. We'll see what happens, though.

I completely agree. THis is exactly thew way I interpret her answers. She's a master at misdirection.

 

[nibblesandbits]

I completely agree. THis is exactly thew way I interpret her answers. She's a master at misdirection.

That is true. She does like to misdirect people. The truth is no one is going to know what the truth is until the last book is released. Sure, there will be tons of speculation, but the truth lies with her.

 

[dxwwf3]

This video is hillarious! While I do think it would suck to be a fan of something and have this happen to you, I still think it would be pretty funny. And since I have never read any Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies, I guess this is extra funny to me because I have no idea what this guy is saying :lol:

I must say that there is a mild language warning for the end of this clip. At least I think so, you can't really understand what she says. Anyways, if someone feels this is needs to be taken down, I won't have any problem editing the post. I just think this video is hillarious.

Click here

 

[MissM]

I don't find that funny at all. It's just rude and unbelievably immature. It's mean spirited; humor where you harm someone for no good reason.
-m

 

[DisneyRoxMySox]

That is a little mean..

Although, to look on the brightside, if there's a brightside, they dobn't know how or why Snape killed Dumbledore.

But, I would be mad if that happened to me...

 

[S_Grise]

That is true. She does like to misdirect people. The truth is no one is going to know what the truth is until the last book is released. Sure, there will be tons of speculation, but the truth lies with her.

Hey, Nibblesandbits :wave:- When quoting me could you fix my typos next time?! LOL! :lol: I'm so bad about that! I get excited and don't proof read closely enough.

 

[nibblesandbits]

Hey, Nibblesandbits :wave:- When quoting me could you fix my typos next time?! LOL! :lol: I'm so bad about that! I get excited and don't proof read closely enough.

Sure if I think about it! :lol:

 

[longfamily]

I'm in agreement about the Part II interview. She never did come out and say Snape was evil. In fact she danced around that pretty well, didn't she?

It did seem pretty clear that we would not see Sirious (sp?) again.

As far as Mundungus, I thought that he had the horcrux goblet in his bag at Hogsmead. A big emphasis was put on what he had in the bag then we were misdirected to only think that these were items stolen from Black's house. This would stand to reason that some of the things withen the house belonged to Regulas. Which I'm not convinced is dead. If all of this is correct, we may see Harry tracking down all of Mundungus' dealings in the next book.

 

[MissM]

This explains my thoughts really well on the matter. So well, it's almost pointless to re-write it all myself. (Another good one is here.) I know it's a lot of text but if you just read 652 pages in a day or two, it's not much. Heh.

I still stand by the fact that things are not as obvious as they seem. Rowling never hits you over the head with something, so the most obvious of events actually push me towards thinking they're the most conclusive - in the opposite way that they're presented. Things are, quite simply, not as black and white as they seem to be.

I've got such mixed feelings on this book. I want to read it again and at the same time, I'm cranky at it. Much of it didn't "feel" like a Harry Potter book. A lot of it felt forced. At the same time, after six books, you really are deep into the world; you really want to go back and explore and see what you missed the first time around.

It's going to stink waiting two years again. Heh. Though I hope I haven't figured it all out before then. I already have some pretty solid thoughts on what might happen in the final book. While I'd love to be right, it'd also stink to read it kinda already knowing what would happen. Rowling says the final chapter has already been written and has been locked away in a safe for years now. I guess it's just the getting there.

I wonder if she has people that do nothing but surf the net, reading discussions on her books, making note of their theories and such to see how much they're really picking up on and how much they're missing. Talk about feedback for a book. Maybe it'd even be a way to throw a wrench into the plot - every one things A so she changes it to C just to break expectation.

Anyway, wanted to pass along the links. They're good ones.
-m

 

[CaptainMichael]

I still stand by the fact that things are not as obvious as they seem. Rowling never hits you over the head with something, so the most obvious of events actually push me towards thinking they're the most conclusive - in the opposite way that they're presented. Things are, quite simply, not as black and white as they seem to be.-m

Of course, that is how it HAS been, but now we are nearing the end. It is time for things to start coming to a conclusion. It is time for things to start becoming black and white.

 

[nibblesandbits]

This explains my thoughts really well on the matter. So well, it's almost pointless to re-write it all myself. (Another good one is here.) I know it's a lot of text but if you just read 652 pages in a day or two, it's not much. Heh.

I still stand by the fact that things are not as obvious as they seem. Rowling never hits you over the head with something, so the most obvious of events actually push me towards thinking they're the most conclusive - in the opposite way that they're presented. Things are, quite simply, not as black and white as they seem to be.

I've got such mixed feelings on this book. I want to read it again and at the same time, I'm cranky at it. Much of it didn't "feel" like a Harry Potter book. A lot of it felt forced. At the same time, after six books, you really are deep into the world; you really want to go back and explore and see what you missed the first time around.

It's going to stink waiting two years again. Heh. Though I hope I haven't figured it all out before then. I already have some pretty solid thoughts on what might happen in the final book. While I'd love to be right, it'd also stink to read it kinda already knowing what would happen. Rowling says the final chapter has already been written and has been locked away in a safe for years now. I guess it's just the getting there.

I wonder if she has people that do nothing but surf the net, reading discussions on her books, making note of their theories and such to see how much they're really picking up on and how much they're missing. Talk about feedback for a book. Maybe it'd even be a way to throw a wrench into the plot - every one things A so she changes it to C just to break expectation.

Anyway, wanted to pass along the links. They're good ones.
-m

You're reasonings as to why Snape might not be a total Voldemort supporter are very good and make a lot of sense, especially when reflecting back on the book.

Maybe Snape is good, maybe he's bad, however, as for the truth, we won't know until book 7 actually comes out. Both storylines could very well be possible and I'm sure both would be very entertaining. However, I think to totally rule out either scenario is wrong.

(By the way, your analysis of the book is very in depth and very enjoyable! There are definitely some good theories in there! Some of which quite possibly are true...)