JKR Kloved - or - The Trampling Of Ron

Now. Ron fans. Don't string me up and roast me over a pit on a slow flame for this, OK?

But I get the idea that JKR was... er... sort of Steve Kloves-ish in this book. Hang on. Hold on to your pitchforks for just one minute, and allow me to explain.

Ron

I'm trying to close my eyes to it, I really am.. but there's no escaping it that Ron just isn't as good as Harry or Hermione are. JKR gives both Harry and Hermione spectacular talents - Harry with his flying and Defence capabilities, Hermione with her academic talents and passion for causes.

Where does this leave Ron? Even though Harry doesn't think so, Ron seems to be consistently worse at academics than even Harry is. His potions are always worse (no, I'm not talking about HBP potions - look at OotP), he's the one who's most often seen copying from Hermione, he can't pass his Apparation exam on his first try even though Harry, who's supposed to be on equal footing with Ron in this skill, manages the supposedly more complicated Side-Along-Apparation with Dumbledore. On his first try.

Ron has confidence problems that interfere with his quidditch abilities and is prone to jealousy. And worst of all, Luna is right - there is a definite streak of cruelty in his words, sometimes: the way he speaks of people to Harry and Hermione, the way he speaks to Moaning Myrtle in book 6... there are many examples. No doubt, he considers these comments funny - which they are - but Harry manages to be funny, too, without being cruel.

Ron is being undermined by JKR (don't jump, I'm sure it is unintentional) in a much more subtle way, too: by oversight and omission. For example: the only spectacular talent that Ron has shown so far is his ability to play chess. Right up until after OotP, I was hopeful that JKR would expand and extrapolate these abilities of his, so that a more solid groundwork would be laid for the oft-predicted General!Ron in book 7. But the penultimate book has come and gone, and Ron's ability in chess remains just that: a knack for playing a game.

Another example: Ron in the DA. In the beginning days of the DA, everybody's still learning and making mistakes, and so when we hear about Ron not being very successful at things, it rankles slightly, but is OK. But later, when Harry comments on how much people are improving, there is absolutely [i]no[/i] mention of Ron. We know Hermione and Neville mastered the Shield Charm - what about Ron? We see Hermione's, Cho's, Seamus's and even Lavender's attempts at the Patronus Charm - anybody have a clue what Ron was doing during this lesson? We don't even know if he managed to conjure one (though, if he didn't manage when Cho did it in spite of her hosepipe-ishness in OotP, I'm going to start throwing things).

Yes... we know that Ron is loyal and funny and brave, and therein lies his greatness and his value to the trio... But step outside the skin of a fan and ask yourself: can't a case be made that Ron is not truly funny or loyal or brave? Because JKR has called all these qualities into question many times - Ron being scared of spiders, Ron not being loyal enough to not want to hurt Hagrid's feelings as much as Harry and Hermione seem to do, Ron's jokes being 'truthfully' called cruel by Luna. I know these are surfacial accusations, and being both a Ron fan and an intelligent reader, I can see how these accusations don't take into consideration the series as a whole... but honestly, JKR isn't helping by calling into question the only things Ron seems to have going for him.

It also doesn't help that Hermione and Harry sometimes seem to patronise Ron - they treat him rather the way they treat Hagrid, with kid-gloves on. Remember Harry and Hermione agreeing not to tell Ron that Hermione Confunded McLaggen? Wasn't this eerily like the trio telling Hagrid that Grubbly-Plank was an awful teacher, just to mollify him? It was just sad that sometimes, Ron wasn't being treated as an equal in the trio.

It's JKR's characters, and perhaps, the dynamic between the three friends was intentional, but it seems awfully wrong to me that both Harry and Hermione demand respect in the trio, and get it, and Ron, the only one with low self-esteem, is being made more and more the butt of jokes - or the comic relief.

At the end of HBP, I'm left asking the same question that people who only watch the HP movies have: what does a girl like Hermione see in a guy like Ron?

And weirdly, I hate myself for asking that.


One other thing

What's this about Hermione kissing Krum? I thought that was only going to happen in the movie! There's a little more room for justification and argument in this matter, of course, but I think there was absolutely no indication in canon that Hermione, for her part, harboured romantic feelings for Krum. Sure, she was flattered that he asked, but she seemed to be aware of the mutual attraction between her and Ron - or, at least, her own interest in him. Evidence: she seemed to be stung, right from the start, that Ron hadn't noticed she was a girl soon enough to ask her. The Yule brawl happened right after the Yule Ball, which shows Hermione was aware of Ron's feelings during the ball. She declines Krum's invitation to come to Bulgaria. In OotP, she calls Krum a pen-pal. There was no indication that she was lying at any of these times. Sure, she was frustrated that Ron was being so thick about it all, but in the simpler world of GoF, she wouldn't have gone and snogged Krum just for revenge!

The only explanation I can see for this sudden bit of information - that Hermione snogged Krum - is either as a plot device to create tension between the two... and I doubt JKR is unaware that the advantage to this would be that Steve Kloves's invention for GoF the movie would become canon.

And I think there is no doubt that Hermione did kiss Krum - Ginny wouldn't lie. She is gutsy enough to stand up to her brothers to say what she thinks, she wouldn't need to invent something like this just to support her own actions.

Also, I don't think she's making it up in order to hurt Ron, because at this point, she's almost crying... and tellingly, she first mentions Harry snogging Cho, which clearly is the reason why she's in tears.

Anyway... Ginny definitely wouldn't lie about something like this because it would also hurt Hermione, wouldn't it?

So. What do you think? Is Steve Kloves really influencing JKR, or was he right about Ron's character all along?

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

WARNING: MULTITUDES OF HUGE, THUMPING SPOILERS FOR HP&HBP AND HP&OotP AHEAD.

The Darkest One So Far
I'm still swirling somewhere inside The Half-Blood Prince, and limited though my ability is at this point to truly step back from the book, it's never been clearer to me that we've left the innocent world of The Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets far behind. Don't be fooled by the blessedly silly humour: this book is the darkest of the series so far, just as JKR promised it would be.

Wartime in the Wizarding World
Even the Muggle Prime Minister has noticed it: we're not in Kansas any more. A very flustered Fudge brings him up to date with the Story So Far, and I must say I liked the way JKR did it this time. I wondered if we'd have to sit through another of Harry's reminisces summing up the series to date, and I was pleasantly surprised. And that's just the first of the good things in this book.

As the jacket summary so aptly says, even in the midst of a war, life goes on. JKR manages to pull off the war atmosphere superbly. Everybody is always, continuously, but ever so slightly, on edge. Molly can't bring herself to tear her eyes off her clock, hoping, perhaps, that one of the hands will, just for a second, swing away from 'Mortal Peril'. Celebrations are overcast with a pervasive gloom, and it's not just the Dementors who are doing it. Perhaps the most effective way that JKR manages to make the dread of war leap off the pages, though, is that shriveled, dead hand of Dumbledore's. It's just... there... reminding us every single minute that this is war, a war that's caused a wizard like Dumbledore to sustain a horrifying injury.

Coming of Age
And so we work our way through the book.. and somewhere in the middle of it, we realise: this is a very different HP book. The focus is very much on explanations, investigation and long, deep conversations - not wild action and rampaging adventure. It contributes tremendously to the character development, and I couldn't escape the feeling that the books seem to have come of age along with Harry. It's not that the characters have been thin before, no, not at all. It's just that we see our major characters more deeply than ever before.

The most notable of them, of course, is Dumbledore. Here, at last, is a Dumbledore who does more than just appear at the end of the book to explain everything. Here, at last, is a Dumbledore in action. I suspect this is how Dumbledore fights his famous battles: long, arduous preparation by gaining a thorough knowledge of the enemy (when he settles not simply for hearsay, but gets to the actual memories of people, no matter how difficult that may be, showing an unusual quantity of respect for the truth untouched by someone's perception), and then moving quickly and purposefully to the tasks ahead, which take far less time than one would expect compared to the preparations. I loved seeing Dumbledore, and getting to know him. I loved that Harry had the chance.

The explanations-mode also lends itself to some superb character moments, and there are many in this book that are, for me, the highlight of the series so far. Harry saying that he's "Dumbledore's man, through and through", Dumbledore's "I am not worried, Harry. I'm with you", that confrontation between Dumbledore and Draco, where I can just see the conflict and realization in Draco's head, even Snape's succinct "Avada Kedavra" which spoke volumes (to me, at least)... These moments are products of nothing short of sheer genius. Not that I ever doubted that JKR was one.

I wish there had been more for Hermione and Ron and the rest of Harry's friends to do, though. In focusing so completely on Harry and Dumbledore (and secondarily, on Snape, Draco and Ginny, and by necessity, because he's a new character, on Slughorn), Ron and Hermione are relegated almost exclusively to the romance subplot. Others I wanted to see more of - Neville, Luna, McGonagall and Lupin - are present only in the fringes of Harry's existence during his 6th year. And frankly, I could have done with far less of Slughorn. I don't understand his role in the book at all... Other than his one precious memory, that is. Will he be bigger in Book 7? I wonder. He seems as inconsequential to me as Lockhart was, and he's far less amusing.

Pacing and Voice
I've only read the book once, I know, but it seemed to simply fly by. The pacing is tight enough to be constrictive: we hardly ever see Harry's ruminations, and I'm afraid that's something I've gotten rather used to. Instead, we see a new Harry who is willing to trust everyone around him and tell them what he's thinking - or perhaps, it's just that he has grown up and is assertive enough so that he's not afraid of being laughed at any more. (That scene with Mr. Weasley, where Harry demands he raid the Malfoy Manor again, is a wonderful example.) Too much is happening all at once, as a result... and I found myself longing for the comparatively leisurely storytelling of Book 5.

But then again, I could be feeling this way because I've read it just once.

I think the only major problem the book runs into is one of voice/viewpoint. We have here, breaking the pattern, not one but two non-Harry's-POV chapters... and though they are both excellent, they are just the visible symptoms of the strain of sticking to a single viewpoint. Later, when we are led through an entire battle by a group of people recalling what happened, it gets rather more awkward. There's nothing that can be done about it, I suppose... it's too late for JKR to just up and give in and not write in Harry's POV any more. Just one of those things.

The Snape Question
Well. I could hardly write a review without devoting some time to the enigma of the Half-Blood Prince.

I lie in the Snape-is-loyal-to-Dumbledore camp. There's a lot of evidence for this. Snape seems to be way too concerned for the safety of the students during the final battle to be a true DE - why else would he urge the other DEs out simply because "the job is done"? If you look closely at what the others tell Harry about their experience of the battle, Snape seems to be protecting the students - curses are mysteriously deflected from them when he's around. He doesn't try to harm Harry in any way - or even try to take him to Voldemort - when he has Harry at his mercy. (The only time he tries to hurt Harry is when he's called a coward - which seems to irk him beyond reason - but I think I do know the reason.) There's a lot more evidence - just see any Snape discussions on the Sugar Quill for viewpoints - and I truly think that Snape's betrayal is an illusion... and I shudder to think what he will have to go through to convince Harry and the Order of his loyalty. I do believe he might die trying.

The Other Things
What can I say? All I need to do is copy and paste from my other reviews of the other HP books: I think the plot is brilliant... I think that despite the pacing problems, everything flows together beautifully. I liked the fact that romance figured in so much more in this book, because it was so apt: Dumbledore's most important lesson to Harry in HBP was that his power to love was important and very potent. It makes sense that major subplots in the book should revolve around love.

It was off-putting that a lot of the wonderful themes explored in book 5 were abruptly given up. Sirius Black - who was that, surely not a parental figure Harry suddenly lost? SPEW who? The DA disbanded on what seemed almost a whim. The Dursleys once again are caricatures, the evil stepsisters no one has to take seriously. And the House Unity that the Sorting Hat keeps mentioning and that the DA seemed to at least partly embody -- vanished like summer rain.

The only thing that even harks back a little to Order of the Phoenix and ties in with it a little is Harry's reaction to Dumbledore's death. Harry (& JKR) handled Dumbledore's death so differently from Sirius's. Harry's thoughts during the funeral were poignant to the point of making me cry: how apt is it that even the death of this man somehow resurrects hope?

The Dark, Twisting Path Ahead
A part of me can't believe we're leaving Hogwarts with Harry.. that Hogwarts might actually close. I might be in denial... but I cannot imagine that happening.

It will be incredibly daring of JKR if she takes Harry, Ron and Hermione out of school for the last year - admirably so. Imagine of the possibilities!

But I think we will return to Hogwarts in the end, one way or another. We've found out that Voldemort was obsessed with Hogwarts and its founders... and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the first Horcruxes he made was hidden at Hogwarts itself. (It would explain his eagerness to hang around, for one thing.) As the scene of the Final Battle, or as the place that Harry goes looking for the ultimate answers, I have no doubt that Hogwarts will return. And that is as it should be: Hogwarts is as much a character in these books as Harry or Ron or Dumbledore.

'Twas the eve before HBP

So as to not be tempted into reading spoilers, I started a thread on HBP to help me pass time online. Haikus were the result.

(Mr Flying Fingers on a possible Nimbus2000/Whomping Willow fic)
Jet wood, same essence,
Whipping arms cannot capture.
Wind whispers, sap tears.

(me)
Sometimes I can hate
even JKR herself
for this ceaseless wait.

(Bribitribbit)
Bribitribbit thinks
Wendelin is going a
bit overboard there.

(me)
It takes all my strength
to calm down and admit that
Bribitribbit's right.

(Gabriells Du Sult)
Eager Fans Await
Anxiety abounding
Harry Potter Six


(MFF again)
Crack of ash. Crowd roars.
Red Sox lose: Fans drink as one.
Boston won: What now?


(Bribitribbit)
At midnight tonight
Fans will discover the Prince
They are impatient

(MFF)
Prince, book six, sail ships?
Pumpkin pie fans read, hopeful--
Can they hear red's laugh?


And so it ends. No more posts (no more coming ONLINE either) until I read the book. Which I only get on TUESDAY, boo ho.. :(

CIAO, and HAPPY READING!

Saturday

.

I can almost smell it.

Freeing my inner Trelawney

It's that time of the ... uh... series. It's 5 days to Book 6, and I'm itching to make some predictions. So here we go.

Who is the Half-Blood Prince?
Dumbledore. Just a strong hunch. (And this way, if it turns out to be Aberforth and not Albus, I'm still right. ;D )

Who is going to die?
Dumbledore, muggles, students we know slightly, Trelawney, Grawp and a couple of Death Eaters.

Who is the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher?
That will be our famous Lion Man (you can read the excerpt without doing any work here), also known as Felix Felicis.

What can be deduced from the covers?
(a) The first sentence in chapter 2 is NOT going to be: "Dumbledore was dead, and Harry resolved to waste no time thinking of him."
(b) Hogwarts will be attacked. Why? Either Because Voldemort is looking for Trelawney.
(c) The next likeliest explanation for that Dark Mark is that it is sent up as a warning by students inside the castle (read DeathEater!Draco).
(d) We're going to meet Aragog, the flying Ford Anglia and/or the blast ended skrewts Hagrid released into the Forbidden Forest after Book 4. Well... I'm kidding about the last one. Make that Grawp.

What does the crystal ball say about rrrrrromance?
Harry and Luna. For a little while. Ron and Hermione will still be clueless. :P

What about Sirius?
It was wishful thinking, two years ago, when I said he'd be back. Nah. He might be in a portrait or a Pensieve, though.

Photos

1. Sorry about lack of updates, am terribly busy.

2. But there's good news: PHOTOS!

I'll be back with proper posts v. v. soon. Have fun!