I was going to cite him as an exception, but I changed my mind.
- He’s not a student.
- He’s not the current head of Slytherin.
- For that matter, just because he was the head of Slytherin doesn’t mean it was his house when he was a student, does it?
If you’re going to make Dumbledore gay - not that there’s anything wrong with that! - at least have the courage to do so somewhere within the gazillion pages of the seven books. And why go on and on about how powerful he is, and what tragedy it would be if he left the school, when he was utterly unable to protect the student body in Chamber of Secrets?
The Wizarding government makes no sense. How is the Minister of Magic selected? He seems almost like a king, but more like a bureaucrat. How are laws passed, if at all? Has no one heard of an independent judiciary? A constitution or bill of rights? For that matter, why have a prison that drives all of its inmates crazy, guarded by manifestly evil beings?
Agreed, there needed to be some good Slytherins and some evil Gryffindors.
Quidditch should’ve been thought through much more carefully. Catching the Snitch is too unbalancing a game event.
Dobby is far too annoying to play such a major role in the books. I, for one, didn’t mourn him.
That said, I love the books and the movies. But perfection they ain’t.
The camping bit annoyed me, too. An immensely long book with everything important crammed into the second half.
But what annoyed me most is the stupid fight between Ron and Harry. Such a trite plot device, used over and over. Made me ill.
There WERE good Slytherins: Regulus Black, Severus Snape and Slughorn (and Draco–sorta). I don’t have a cite, but I’m pretty sure one could not become Head of a house that one was not previously in. But anyone from any House could become HeadMaster.
I still don’t get why Snape’s portrait wasn’t in the Head’s office at the end. Yeah, so he was a bad guy–except he wasn’t.
To me, Ron and Harry (and Ron and Hermione’s bickering) were very realistically portrayed-which is not to say there wasn’t too much of it. I don’t really see the whole “but Ginny’s his sister; he’ll kill me if I like her” nonsense. This is Harry we’re talking about–the ultimate in wizard celebrity–in RL, Ron would probably be pimping her. 
I’m really hoping that the next film flashes back to the funeral AND gives us some backstory re Petunia and Lily.
One attitude that annoyed me a lot (and that you just reminded me of) was Ron’s chauvinism. Several times he hassled Ginny about her boyfriends (despite the fact that he was joined at the tongue with Lavender Brown for at least part of the time), telling her who she could and couldn’t see, what she could and couldn’t do…if I were Ginny, I would have let him have it a lot more than she did, and told him to mind his own business or I’d hex him into next week.
For a guy who was supposed to be a sympathetic character (and one that Hermione would be attracted to–I’m not by any means a “shipper” (I actually despise the concept) but I do think that both in the books and the movies, Harry and Hermione made a much more natural couple)–Ron was a “right git” for a lot of the time. It seemed like the whole Hermione/Ron thing was shoehorned.
one of his children mentioned that teddy was around so much he may as well move in. in an interview ms rowling said that teddy lived with his grandmother and harry was very involved with him, kinda like visitation rights. weekends and holidays and the ilk.
Yep. Same here (I have an older brother who would never have acted that way towards me. And thank goodness).
Here I disagree. I once knew a couple who bickered like Hermione and Ron. Hermione liked Ron from the git-go. As early as book 3 (and even clearer in book 4). I don’t care for shippers, either, but I’m with Rowling on this one–she said in an interview (before the last book came out) that she couldn’t have made it any more clear re Hermione and Ron and she’s right. And if one really looks at it, the Ginny/Harry thing was there as well. She is the one he rescues; she is the only one who can stop him short (I think she does so in book 5–something about “don’t take that tone with me” and Harry mumbles an apology etc).
It’s just that Ginny was never given a chance to BE more–she’s not given enough face time in either the books or the films (the actress does a good job with what she’s given, though).
I don’t get why Neville and Luna don’t make a go of it, though. They are so good together.
Rowling stated in an interview that Snape was not technically headmaster at the time of his death – hence, no portrait. (This was one of the biggest disappointments of the book, in my opinion.)
Death Eaters and thier ilk value purebreds, but Voldimort is a half-breed.
She did say that one was added later, though - at Harry’s insistance.
My major dissapointed is that apparently not one Slytherin stayed to fight in the final battle. Come on…
Well, that’s entirely in keeping with the great tyrants of history: Napoleon was from Corsica, Hitler was from Austria and reputedly had Jewish blood, etc.
What I came in here to say - the game, as played, makes little sense. Why not just have all 14 guys chasing the snitch? Why worry about balls, goals, etc?
As shown at the World Cup match, you can get far enough ahead that you can still win if the other team catches the snitch. Remember, the game continues until the snitch is caught.
Obviously, Rowling didn’t think it through, just trying for a sport that was “wizardy”.
Yeah, I guess I can see this. I was rarely impressed by Ginny because it seemed to me a lot of the time that she was suffering from “Will Riker Syndrome”–everybody around her talked about how good she was, but we rarely got to see her in action. I honestly think Rowling has the same problem that I do as a writer–she’s not good at writing female characters, despite being female herself. I mean, look at the females in the series and find me one who has any depth other than Hermione (who is basically Rowling herself). Ginny kind of does but not really. McGonagall sort of does–but it really doesn’t matter that she’s female. None of the other student girls had any depth–Cho mooned over Cedric and was a romantic ninny most of the time. Lavender Brown was worse. The Patil twins were just there so Harry and Ron could have somebody to go to the ball with. Bellatrix LeStrange, while interesting, was barking mad. Molly Weasley was a well-drawn character with faults and good points, but we didn’t really get to see much of her. Umbridge was more of a caricature than a person. Ditto Trelawney. Fleur Delacoeur–don’t get me started. She got better as the series went on, but why was she even in the Triwizard Tournament? She barely even made a showing compared to the three boys. Hell, I think one of the deepest female characters in the book hardly got any screen time at all–Narcissa Malfoy. At least she got to grow as the books went on, and she was forced to make a heroic and very dangerous choice in order to save her beloved son.
Have I forgotten anybody? This isn’t necessarily a criticism, but look at all the interesting male characters in the stories: Harry, Ron, Snape, Sirius, Lupin, Fred and George, Dumbledore, Neville, Draco, Mad-Eye…the list goes on and on.
I guess my recollection must be off then. I only read it once and didn`t give it another thought until now. I thought Harry’s kid knew more about him than Harry and that Harry’s own knowledge of the kid’s current status was about about as thorough as a dad would typically know about his kid’s friends
James (Harry’s kid) announces that Teddy (Lupin’s kid) was kissing Victorine (Bill and Fleur’s kid). It seemed to me that all the adults already knew something was going on, and James was upset he did not get more of a reaction.
Then Harry’s daughter stated that if they (Teddy and Vic) got married he really would be part of the family, and Harry responds that he practically lives with them already.
(Lord, I am such a geek)
Wow. Huh. You might be right. This is food for thought.
winterhawk–and even Lily is just a sketch, really. And Petunia is another cartoon. One of the things I liked best about Movie 6 was the bit about Lily and the fishbowl. It added shade and depth to her character, much more so than every other character maundering on about how Harry has Lily’s eyes…
I thought Molly was well drawn, but after Hermione, I have to agree that there aren’t a lot of solid female characters in Rowling’s work. (maybe Luna–but she’s an accent note).
Oh, and as for least favorite section–I can’t stand the way the whole series starts. Going back to reread prior to Book 7 coming out last summer, I was appalled at how the slow the beginning of Book 1 is.
There was an editor?
Go on, pull the other one, it’s got bells on. 
As to Remus J. Lupin, I just can’t help but feel that his parents were setting him up at birth.
Actually, the text of GoF has Barty Crouch, Jr. explicitly saying that he did turn the Cup into a Portkey. In fact, I don’t remember that being a feature in the movie, either, although I’ll happily accept being schooled otherwise.
The issue of Portkeys being a way around the anti-Apparition spells on Hogwarts is a little troubling to me. Dumbledore makes one in Order of the Phoenix when he’s sending Harry and the Weasleys to Grimmauld Place on the occasion of Arthur Weasley’s attack. And he does it again in the Ministry of Magic (with the head from the destroyed Fountain), right in front of the Minister of Magic (and over the Minister’s protests), to send Harry into his office.
So we know that Portkey creation is regulated by the Ministry. And we know that Dumbledore has the ability to bypass Hogwarts security protocols with them. We seem to have found out that a Death Eater can do the same (Crouch, Jr.).
And since when are they two-way devices? Maybe that’s inherent in the property of being activated by touch, instead of going off at a specific time whether they have a passenger or not, but that strikes me as a bit of a fan-wank.