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San Francisco, 2:38 AM
Wed Nov 11
27 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/10/09
11/10/09
Harry's ideal reward wasn't to be a power-broker, god-like ruler, or anything of the like -- he wanted a normal, happy family life. What's wrong with hard work and sacrifice paying off?
Considering what real life is like, it takes considerable imagination to be able to envision that future.
I need to add ... I HATE any time that an author or artist takes time to publicly congratulate their own work. That's for me to decide for myself -- not for them to tell me.
11/10/09
Achieving victory -- and surviving to see that victory -- meant you could go home to family, friends, work, love, and a normal life. For a lot of heroes, that's exactly what they were fighting for.
The series' ending shows Harry, an orphan brought up without love and whose dearest wish was to have a loving family (as seen in the Mirror of Erised in the first book), as having achieved that dream. He's a happy and loving father, husband, and a successful wizard.
JKR didn't fail to answer the question; she just answered it in a way you thought was stupid, Mr. Grossman, but such a question is easily applied to any number of Greatest Generation heroes:
Here's a young man who can fight like hell; he helped defeat the greatest evil of the 20th century when he was 18 (19, 20...). What's the rest of his life look like?
If he was lucky, it looked a lot like Harry's.
I wonder: what's a happier ending than a character getting what he's always dreamed of?
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As for the epilogue of HP, how else would it have happened? HP is all about the importance of love, and family. Harry's lack of both these things is what has haunted him his whole life. Unless Harry had died, did anyone really think Harry wouldn't marry Ginny, have some kids, and try to have a big happy Weasley family of his own? That's all he ever wanted. #harrypotter
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Then I contemplated how people who have been through horrors in their teens can imagine no better future than normalcy; that perhaps for someone who spent their entire teenage life fighting for freedom and justice and saving the world, being able to create a nice, normal home for their kids might be the absolute pinnacle of their hopes.
So then I thought, cool.
And now I think Mr. Grossman has had a failure in perspective. #harrypotter
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Well not as much as this guy, who thinks it crapped the bed for the entire series, I just thought it was a bit unnecessary and felt kind of awkwardly tacked on, like, as others have mentioned, a fanfic written by someone else.
My theory was that it was Rowlings way of
1. Sabotaging any future attempts by someone else to resurrect the series or publish unwarranted sequels and add ons
and/or
2. To protect herself from the countless fans who would have inundated her until her death with letters and email and pleas as to know what she thinks happened to Harry Potter afterward.
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Agreed! #harrypotter
11/10/09
Then folks begged and pleaded until Sir ACD cranked out a story with the disclaimer, "This happened before he died; Sherlock's still dead!"
Then folks begged and pleaded until Sir ACD said, "Fine! He faked his death. Here's more of his kooky adventures..." #harrypotter
11/10/09
So I guess we better hope for the series sake that Rowlings doesn't piss away her $1,000,000,000 fortune anytime soon...
EDIT:
Nm, Doyle didn't go broke, he just did it for the fans.
Whatever, it's still better than being an eye doctor.
11/10/09
And everyone knows the true ending of Harry Potter - [achewood.com] #harrypotter
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:( #harrypotter
11/10/09
:D "What a disaster", eh Grossman? #harrypotter