Originally Posted by
blublood
So when I got sick a few weeks ago, I re-read Deathly Hallows, hoping that death might come to me before I finished it (yeah, it was THAT kind of sickness!). Obviously that didn't work, but on reflection I kind of think that book 7 wasn't as good as you would have thought on first read. It was definitely much, much better than you would have thought it could be with all the impossible hype to live up to, but it left me feeling empty.
Specifically the portrayal of Voldemort bugs me. Book 6 set us up so well for a massive showdown of Harry vs. the Master of All Evil. The protection around the horcrux in the cave was brilliant - pure genius and pure evil. I think you really expected more of that in the climactic book 7, and also for Voldemort to reveal powers heretofor unknown to the wizarding world which plucky Harry has to battle.
Well... instead we found out that he could fly, which I could have told you from the first book, that one horcrux went in a vault at Gringott's (not really very imaginative), that one was in the room of hidden things (and why in the world would he think that he's the only one who can get in when quite obviously, lots of other people have been there??), and that someone was going to have to kill the snake, which we already knew.
Then even in the battle at Hogwarts, it seems that the best the Death Eaters, and even Voldemort himself, can do is either avada kedavra people or put them in the body-bind spell which Hermione learned how to do her first year. I mean, really - this is "dark magic"? This is the most terrifying wizard the world has ever seen?
It just seemed like Voldemort came off looking like an idiot at the end of Book 7, not at all the sort of character we were promised in books 1-6. Any thoughts?...