Ratings2,834
Average rating4.4
Harry Potter and the hunt for the 10 Mcguffins.
Once again we get a cool world, with an okay story ruined by an annoying and useless main character.
The story on this book wasn't the best of harry potter, but also not the worst (I'm looking at you order of the Phoenix...). The story beats on them selves where repetitive and boring. All events on this book can be summarized by:
1. We got an idea of where we can get information and or magical Mcguffin
2. Lets plan an over complicated plan to get there which most certainly won't fail...
3. Get the information and or object
4. Something goes wrong and we are under attack
5. Somehow a group of 3 teenagers escape a group of highly competent wizards. Hooray!!!
This exact procedure is repeated at least 5 times, that I can remember from the top of my head. And it got really boring really fast. Somehow these 3 kids that haven't even finished their wizard education are invincible. They can get away from fights where they are clearly outnumbered and out skilled, but with the power of plot convenience they escape with at most a bruise.
Like in the sixth entry of this book I was mostly interested in the subplot concerning Riddle's and Dumbledore's backstory. And I must admit that the flashback with Snape was kinda cool, but that still was greatly overshadowed by the most annoying main character ever (The rant about Harry Potter will continue in the next section).
The part that got me the most confused was the sudden appearance and importance of the Deathly hallows. Was it setup in any way before, which I din't notice or did they really come out of nowhere. Because if it is the latter, it felt really cheap. We already where on the hunt for 7 magical Mcguffins (the horocrux) why do we need 3 extra new artifacts to look for? And how did they help?
I guess that the cloak has helped for the whole book series, but the other 2?
The Stone was basically a fan service moment, let's bring back everybody that Harry has died to protect this incompetent child for a big “you can do it” moment. Guy's Harry is so egocentric he doesn't need your support, from the moment he was proposed to sacrifice himself as a martyr or magical Jesus he didn't even hesitate.
And the elder Wand was basically used as a cheap way to keep harry alive. The final “Duel” (if you can even call it a duel) between Harry and Voldemort is a “well actually” this is how I think wands work and through shear luck that wand can't hurt me, bruh. If you want to survive an unbeatable wand don't tell that bullshit, just don't invent an unbeatable wand... I like how the system where wands chose the wizard and a wand of another wizard will only obey the new master if that wand was “won” by the new one (I put won in quotation marks because I don't know if the Draco Harry wand swap could be considered as winning a duel). But then they get overly complicated, where Snape didn't actually win the wand because it was arranged (If you ask me if you kill somebody you technically beat them even though it was arranged), therefore Draco won it, although he did not throw any spell on Dumbledore, and since Harry stole Draco's wand (the regular one...) the elder wand should be Harry's. Dunno man I think you are stretching the wand mechanics a bit, and with a bit I mean a lot.
Like I said I don't understand the existence of the Deathly Hallows, they generate more problems than solutions. This whole “well actually” moment ruined my enjoyment of the conclusion of the series, it felt cheap ngl.
Now let's talk about Harry role in the whole book series. Did harry actually do something useful at any moment? He can play quidich really good, to bad there where no brooms in the final battle.
He got carried by more skilled and intelligent wizards throughout the series, but he still gets all the praise. He is also the most egocentric and annoying main character I've read to this date. From the 5th book on I really wanted to punch him in the face each time he opened his mouth, it was horrible. He thinks that he is always right and that everybody else is dumb, even though he has been wrong several times in the past. But once in a while he gets it right and rides on that high through the next several errors. For example the whole mind connection with Voldemort has been a problem more times that it has helped.
Concerning Harry's ego, I liked the presence of Hermione as the voice of rationality, because she said to Harry the obvious things that every reader was thinking at that moment. But Harry knows better than to listen to the best student in Hogwarts, she doesn't anything about magic... At the end of the day he is the chosen one, he is the best wizard in the world. EXPECTRO PATRONUM.
The only time he listens to advice is when Dumbledore tells him that hes gotta commit suicide and he, as the egocentric ass he is, doesn't even hesitate. It is his opportunity to live on as the great wizard he never was, and he just has to stand there let himself be killed. But because he can not die he is actually a horocrux and Voldemort only killed the part of his soul that was from Voldemort. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of Harry being a Horocrux it has a lot of symbolism and it explains a lot, but why is harry the only horocrux that isn't destroyed in the process of removing Voldemort soul? They truly did destroy a bunch of valuable historical artifacts of unthinkable worth, but they did spare the boy? Something doesn't fit here. I would have loved for the book to end with the conversation with Dumbledore in heaven and then the same epilogue without harry, maybe Hermiones and Rons son is called Harry and is going to Hogwarts ore some fan service bullshit like that. Maybe even a final chapter where Nevil defeats the very debilitated Voldemort with Griffindors sword. By the way, how did the sword get to Hogwarts, didn't the lose it in the bank robbery?
It would have so much satisfying. You don't have to mess with the mechanics from the elder wand and you don't have to bring harry back from the dead.
Speaking of Nevil he is the Character with the biggest glow up and Luna is the most underrated character.
Now lets talk about Harry ethics, everybody thinks he is the best one and an angel. He even get praised by Dumbledore for not being fooled by his own power like he did. Excuse me... we are talking of the boy that once he knew of the existence of the stone that brings back people from the dead wanted to drop the whole horocrux hunt to get his parents back. We are also talking about the kid that once his expecro patronum stooped being effective started using dark magic spells. This kid should be locked up in azcaban.
I do not understand the hype concerning these books and their characters. At the begging it was nice, but it has such a face plant of an ending, that probably ruined the whole series for me. At least it gave me a bad mouth taste to end with.
I guess that its success rides on nostalgia of people reading it as a child and I've read it as a 20 year old so I won't get it... And I trully don't get it.