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Thanks for posting the links! They're very insightful to read.

I'm glad you liked them. I was a little worried I killed the conversation with them.

Its funny but I feel very different about the book the more I get away from having just read it. I like it more and more. I think I built it up a little too much in my head even though I tried not too.

There were a lot of high expectations with this one. I mean, the series started almost 10 years ago! 1998! We've been waiting for a long time, and there was so much build-up to the end that I believe we all built our expectations up as well. We just can't help it sometimes, especially if said series is our favorite. ^_^

I know what you mean, the more I ponder the book, the better I think it was! I didn't get to go see Order of the Phoenix until after I read the book, so it was very interesting watching the movie knowing how the series turned out. And thank you for starting the discussion! My husband STILL has not started it (being in the middle of reading 2 other books he told me he was not going to start reading a 3rd) and after having devoured it in a day, it was nice to have some people to discuss it with! What did you thinkg about Rowling's coment about sparing Mr. Weasley?

Esmerelda wrote:And thank you for starting the discussion! My husband STILL has not started it (being in the middle of reading 2 other books he told me he was not going to start reading a 3rd) and after having devoured it in a day, it was nice to have some people to discuss it with!

I know what you mean. My wife just started a new job and showed no interest in jumping on it, so I passed it on to my mom. I am hoping she will be done by this weekend, when we're going on a road trip. She is going a little slow because she is reading two other books at the same time

What did you thinking about Rowling's comment about sparing Mr. Weasley?

I didn't see the need for him to die. In fact I think it would've been too much too soon. So her not wanting to kill him (at least then) was her gut steering her right. As she pointed out he really is the only example of a "good," loving, living father in the series. Lupin could have become that but it seemed right for him to die as the Marauders had, as much as I hated seeing it. He had passed on what he needed to the the next generation and he found love, even if he didn't get to experience it for long. Mr. Weasley on the other hand was a good, loving, live father and the story needed that opposite to so many other characters. I do kind of wish that we had the chance to see him and Molly really kicking ass, more. The end (even though it was 1/3 of the book) felt hurried and rushed. But a lot of that is on purpose. I think maybe she made the right decision for the wrong reason and feels a little guilty about it even though it was right.

I LOVED the line when Bellatrix was going after Ginny and Molly said "Not my daughter, you bitch!" It was the classic cat fight that every story needs to have. I just loved that through the whole series Molly is so mild mannered housewifey mom, but she kicks ass to save her daughter's life. There needed to be at least one good strong adult male to survive, since all the other role models Harry had died in the other books. I also thought her reasoning about which twin to kill was interesting. I hate to say it, but I never really thought about Fred and George as having very different personalities, they always sort of blended together into one entity for me.

Yeah, I didn't read this whole thread, cause I'm going to bed now, but I finally borrowed the book and I finished it in about 8 hours of straight reading. My eyeballs hurt, bad.

Hmmm...well, there were a lot of things I didn't understand...like how did Neville end up with the sword? Also I missed when Lupin died...did this happen "off-camera" cause I didn't notice until he was talking to their entities.

And Snape? Well, I've always had a soft spot for him. I never doubted him for a second.

Sooo...I know this has been done for awhile, but J.K. Rowling has answered some interesting new questions.

The number 1 thing that people are talking about is Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grendelwald. Plus there is some other good stuff in there.

Is there any relevance for Dumbledore being gay though? He's kind of dead...

Sheogorath wrote:Is there any relevance for Dumbledore being gay though? He's kind of dead...

Fanfiction.

I'm sorry, of all the HP characters I would like to see gay and do gay funess Dumbledore is last on my list.

Then again I guess you could have love stories and such....

Then once again, maybe I'm reading the wrong types of fan fiction.

Well there is the general social ramifications for a character in a very popular series to be gay. Unfortunately that is still somewhat rare. Its gets a lot of people thinking about acceptance I think.

It also goes into those really into the story. It means he did have a love in his life and that means you can examine the character a little differently.

And yes the Slash is going to probably go crazy. Then again maybe it won't, does the character actually being gay take some of the fun out of it?

CNN mentioned that some of the lines in the book made a little more sense after the revelation. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/1 ... newssearch

I think the point to make here was that being gay was so unimportant to the aspect to the book that it was much like a character having an eye-color or something. Had Dumbledore been outwardly gay in a scene or something and making a big deal about it, I think it would have been a whole different discussion. But the fact that the character was gay and it was so unimportant and just a part of life, I think it won't be as big of a negative deal (except for those radical bigots and religous fanatics who would use anything anyways.)

I think Art summed it up very well.

Since I cannot keep my mouth shut though, I would have liked her to pick a different cause to bring up. The woman has enormous potential to change the minds of young people and she decided gayness was going to be her cause.

Lambic wrote:Well there is the general social ramifications for a character in a very popular series to be gay. Unfortunately that is still somewhat rare. Its gets a lot of people thinking about acceptance I think.

It also goes into those really into the story. It means he did have a love in his life and that means you can examine the character a little differently.

And yes the Slash is going to probably go crazy. Then again maybe it won't, does the character actually being gay take some of the fun out of it?

And its not like Slash has a reason to blow up, but now that it is legitimized...oh brother! I think part of the problem is that it further adds feul to the practice of students of Rowlings' works. I wonder if anyone will even care in 50 years. Same with Jordan. I wonder if people will pick apart and analyze what HE's done 50 or 100 years down the road. Sorry to be cynical, I just think this woman is milking her franchise at this point. Its not like she didn't know the effect of releasing information like that would have.