(no subject)

[which_chick]

It's the day after The Book and I keep wanting other people to be done with it so that I can discuss it with them. *sigh* They'll get there eventually and I imagine that the fandom will eventually come to terms with The Book and reorganize themselves (like those swarms of octopus robot things in The Matrix so that they're heading on the new bearing. Eventually.

Just... I want someone to talk to NOW.



Thing I most expect to see from the fandom: Assloads more Snape-and-Draco. I am not complaining about this in the slightest. It'll probably be relatively unpleasant circumstances for them, too, because I reckon they're going to be either (a) pretending to be excruciatingly loyal Death Eaters or (b) on the lam from both Death Eaters and the OotP folks. I think scenario A is more likely because if they were just going to run away from everyone in the end, Snape wouldn't have had to swear to Narcissa in the first place. Also, it'd have been way stupid to off Dumbledore if Snape wasn't going to use that action to get in good with Voldie. Snape himself admits that Voldie is legilimens from hell, which means that Snape has got to be [Kid Rock voice] worldclass [/Kid Rock voice] in more than just fucking potions. I don't see them (Draco and Snape) getting a very happy reception back into OotP unless Dumbledore was a lot more forthcoming to his underlings than he appeared to have been. Hell, he didn't tell Harry about the whole "I'm the sacrificial queen" thing, now, did he? And Dumbledore freaking petrified Harry SO THAT HARRY WOULD NOT MESS THINGS UP. Harry was invisible and he now has the power to do voiceless magic -- he could have "helped" without blowing his cover -- there was no need to petrify him unless he would have obstructed the point of the meeting. I bet Dumbledore didn't tell the rest of the OotP team because they can't spill what they don't fucking know. There's no point having truly deep cover (like Snape has now ensured himself) unless it's unbreakable. If some ass from OotP got caught and spilled that Dumbledore MADE Snape kill him, that'd screw the pooch indeed. Also, since they didn't know, they couldn't then be wasting valuable time and effort trying to STOP him from lettings things occur as they must. Yeah, I can see why D. didn't inform folks he was planning on taking a dive in the tenth round.

Also, as in Buffy with the Ben/Glory problem, practically everyone who plays for the Good Guys has trouble with expediency. True, this is part of what makes 'em the Good Guys... but it also reduces the number of options for waging a war. The successful candidate can make the difficult, unkind, entirely not-raindrops-on-roses-and-whiskers-on-kittens choices for the greater good. Of course, lots and lots of unsuccessful candidates confuse their own ends with the greater good, and we call those people the Bad Guys.

Problem: How in the hell is Rowling planning to get around the fact that every-fucking-body (Characters in the book, I mean) thinks Snape is a traitor to make use of his proximity to Voldie to further the side of the right? I mean, honestly, he's not bad. Perhaps ten year olds, reading the book, will think that Snape is bad... but come on. He's not bad. If he were EEEEVIL, he would have killed Flitwick, not stunned him. If he were EEEEVIL, he would have gloated a bit more over the dead Dumbledore, a bit of a やった or something, but we didn't get that at all. He didn't look gleeful or triumphant or anything. He looked very angry. Snape is still one of the good guys, even if Harry doesn't particularly think so... so how in the hell is he going to pass information to the OotP folks now that his name is mud in their book? Maybe he'll just undermine Voldie from within the camp and/or set up some kind of thing to mass-slaughter the rest of the DE crowd so that Voldie will be left alone, relatively easier pickings for our man Harry. I suppose we shall see.

Do we see any way for Snape to come out of this whole thing alive? Bueller? Bueller?

Hey, now that the phoenix is gone, can they still be OotP or are they going to be Order Of The Missing Bird now? Hell, they don't have a mascot OR a leader. That's kind of problematic, innit?

Finally, if we get to the end of book 7 and don't find out why Dumbledore trusted Snape, I am personally going to fly to Scotland (or wherever) and strangle the bitch. She's referred to it way, way too many times not to tell us. Fucking HARRY has noticed and asked for a reason. We've gotta get told about that... what we get thus far is not enough. 'S not.

Comments

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

That last (why Dumbledore trusts Snape) is really eating at me. Snape had to have had something really, really good to give Dumbledore. Dumbledore was the good guy but he wasn't fucking stupid. There were lots of OTHER things to do with an allegedly-repentant Snape besides having him continue on in the role of double-agent now spying for the good guys and privy to all sorts of OotP informations. He could have smuggled Snape out of the country or something -- got him a job in France at Beauxbatons or whatever. He could have done other things with Snape, things that would have had far less potential for damage. The only reasons Dumbledore would have for putting Snape where he did were (1) for an insider with Voldie and (2) because he trusted the utter hell out of Snape.

As we have learned, Dumbledore didn't just trust Snape with his life, but he also trusted him with his death. There are a lot more people you can trust NOT to kill you than you can trust to kill you against their will because you tell them it's necessary. (Not a fan of Dumbledore/Snape, just so you know. I won't peruse that avenue of reasoning.)

So what the fuck was it? It had to be something really, really good. Really good. Really convincing.

What sorts of things can you put horcruxes into? We know inanimate objects, yes. Does it actually SAY inanimate objects in the book? How about tattoos? I'm just asking... That'd be the fucking height of hubris, giving each follower a little bit of yourself, wouldn't it? The dark marks are linked to him... but we don't know what, precisely, they are. That's never been discussed.

Enquiring minds want to know. And what the HELL did Snape tell Dumbledore to make Dumbledore trust him so?

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

And, y'know, if what Snape told Dumbledore was good enough to get Dumbledore to trust Snape, perhaps it will also be good enough to get Harry to trust Snape. Wouldn't that neatly solve the whole problem I mentioned up there?

[ladyivy.livejournal.com]

And, y'know, if what Snape told Dumbledore was good enough to get Dumbledore to trust Snape, perhaps it will also be good enough to get Harry to trust Snape. Wouldn't that neatly solve the whole problem I mentioned up there?

The problem I see is getting Harry to listen without trying to kill Snape for long enough to get the words out. tiranog has a quite long rant about HBP on her lj; she makes a lot of good points but overall I was entertained by the book. I definitely agree that JKR needs to tell us how the hell Snape convinced Dumbledore to trust him so well.

I think your take that D wanted S to kill him and possibly prearranged it is interesting considering the set up that everyone else is now convinced he's an evil git. But your point about Flitwick is a good one.

I don't know. I liked it, but it is a really different feel than the first few. Truly darker. I'll have to reread it when I return from conversion in OH and think on it again.

[ksleet.livejournal.com]

I got the book from Amazon a week or two ago, just sat down to start reading it on Friday and finished it today. Fortunately I managed to avoid all spoilers except for the luckily vague "Snape does something shocking."

I second your comment about this book being a much tighter read. The last couple were, to be honest, a little flabby, but by contrast HBP just rocketed along; I couldn't put it down. It felt like there wasn't a single wasted word. Kudos to Rowling's editors...

And yeah, given that it's basically a literary cliche these days it's hard not to think that this is really all just part of A Bigger Plan and Snape will turn out to be a good guy in the end. Looking at it logically, though, it's a little hard to swallow. Granted, it's useful to have a perfect double agent in Voldemort's inner circle -- but Dumbledore is a huge asset to the side of good, if not in fact their only leader who is of any use at all. I suppose we'll find out.

Perhaps none of it was planned and it was all just a huge screwup due to Snape carelessly accepting that vow at the beginning of the story. I could almost believe that version the most.

Oh, and a prediction: In the last book Sirius Black will return from the Phantom Zone or wherever he went in time to save the day.

[ksleet.livejournal.com]

I just remembered. Dumbledore got very animated when he was talking to Harry about how worthless prophecies were -- it was one of his most emotional scenes in the entire scene. Deliberately sacrificing his life this far in advance of the story's conclusion sounds to me like a prophecy-fulfillment jag, assuming we're pulling pieces from the standard fantasy kit here. So it's hard for me to believe he'd do that after making his feelings on the issue so clear.