Most Hated Moments in Canon (or Why, Rowling,Why?)

[MrRigger2]

Since we have one of these in the Team 8 thread, I thought I'd start one here. Personally, the one moment that's jumping out at me is when Dumbledore tasked Harry with getting Slughorn's memory about Riddle. I still don't understand why it was necessary. Dumbledore obviously already knew about Horcruxes, having destroyed one, and knew Voldemort had created more than one, having already known that the Diary had been one. There was no point in making Harry get the memory, as Dumbledore knew all the information that it divulged already. Not to mention the problem with making Harry try to get Slughorn to part with something he doesn't want to part with, especially since Slughorn has decades of manipulating people.

MrRigger

[MorphCross]

The Hallows themselves left me feeling kinda flat footed. I mean, there is absolutely no forshadowing of their intended uses in any of the books, no sideways references to them. They seemed a bit "contrived" in their appearance. Like they were created for the sole purpose of pulling Harry out of the corner you'd perhaps written him into. Of course you give him a pass and kill Fred, Tonks, and Lupin leaving a pair incomplete (not that kind of pair eww! Twincest!) and Teddy an orphan respectively.

[Wittgen]

The last 100 or so pages of canon were pretty much a non stop stream of ugh to me.

If I limit myself to canon before it started sucking (in other words, the first five books), I would go with Dumble's brilliant decision to give the house cup to Gryffindor in the most dickish way he could. Way to go Brian.

[MrRigger2]

Not just once, but twice. First making sure any rumors about the Stone and what happened during first year would never die, and then by giving Harry and Ron two hundred points apiece. Nothing suspicious there, huh?

MrRigger

[Kitsune_Akatsuki]

Uhm....Everything after where this started?

[Psalm Of Fire]

I didn't even start reading the series until the last book was out and held pretty mild expectations, so the last book didn't really bother me. I thought the Hallows were an awesome idea, cool mythology and all, but I really wished the would have shown up earlier. I agree, it was a very contrive ending and implies that she did not have the end in her sights even when she was writing the sixth book.

As for most hated... well, I really liked the additions to Dumbledore's character at the end, they made him more relatable and not appear to be a manipulative bastard... I think it would be the fact that Fred died. That's total bull. I love plot armor.

Well, I can like characters dying too, but maybe I dislike this because it was almost done flippantly, and is the only book with flippant deaths, and thus out of tone.

Oh, and the fact that Hermione walked around with Harry's penis really throws me for a loop.

[unknown198]

^I started reading the books after Order of the Phoenix and I didn't have a problem with Book 7 either, but like you, I wish the Hallows had been at least referenced earlier on.
As for the ending, I think that JKR ended it exactly as she'd always planned to *shrugs*. Some people may not like it, but that's just the way it is.

As for most hated moment...I can't say there's any moments that I *hated* but I did raise an eyebrow when Dumbledore gave them all those points at the end of the first book. While Harry and co. deserved to be rewarded, it seemed a really odd way of doing things.

[lucifer10]

Oh, and the fact that Hermione walked around with Harry's penis really throws me for a loop.

Wait, what? Did I miss something? Someone care to fill me in?

[ewuvi]

The use of Polyjuice Potion in the last one, I think. Hermione turns into Harry for that, thus the Tallywhacker.

[unknown552]

I didn't like much of the 5th, 6th, & 7th books, but the epilogue was horrid!
I saw 'epilogue' and thought about what changes there might have been in the wizarding world and instead all we learned was that some folks had kids and Draco didn't go to Azkaban for life.

[Tom Mathews]

Ah the Epilouge.

That was written before the first chapter of the first book. That is the reason those last three books are so horrid. Her characters were going one way and she had to force them back onto track.

I can't recall where I saw this:

Book 5 Ginny was supposed to be more prominet. Arthur Weasley was supposed to die. Instead we got Sirius Black dying.

Book 6 A bit more prominence for Ginny and maybe the other items of the founders are to be revealed. IIIRC Hagrid was supposed to die in this book.

Book 7 Percy Weasley, Lucius and Narcissa were supposed to die, instead one twin, Hedwig, Remus, and Tonks. The death of the Malfoys would shock Draco into changing sides.

JKR decided to play games and kept who Harry was going to be with up in the air with Book 5 and she seemed to take great delight in making Harry's life more miserable.

Ah well. I always thought that wand in Ollivander's window belonged to Ravenclaw and was the last item of the Founders(Gryffindor's sword(Swords), Slytherin's Locket(Pentacles), Ravenclaw's Wand(Staffs), Hufflpuff's Cupe(Cups)), due to the way the Tarot was being featured throughout the books.

Most hated moment in canon? The lies JKR told.

She came out and stated that Harry wasn't a Horcrux and everything that was needed was in the first 5 books. So, the Deathly Hallows.

[MorphCross]

Well, I believe that all the Hallows made an appearance in the first five books. I don't have my copy of Chamber of Secrets on me but I believe they mentioned Tom wearing a ring in the book. Dumbledore's wand of course has made numerous appearances, as well as Harry's Cloak. It's just more troubling that J.K. Rowling could have had more foreshadowing in the earlier books than what she had. Unless the Hallows angle was just a convenient retcon for allowing Harry to survive.

[ashez2ashes]

I didn't think Ginny was very likable in the sixth book, which has colored my opinion of her and the Harry/Ginny ship quite a bit hence after. She just rubbed the wrong way throughout the book, and when she and Harry got together it felt like the captain of the football team hooking up the head cheerleader.

I thought it was hard to buy that Harry's cloak was a SUPER SPECIAL MEGA invisiblity cloaks, and that somehow Hermione never noticed it had all of this legendary properties to it that regular cloaks don't have.

For the most part though, I'm leagues happier with HP canon than Naruto canon.

[SquirrelyRequiem]

Personally, I would have liked for Luna to have a bigger role in the books. Also, the numerous deaths in the seventh book.

[viridian]

Yeah, some of the deaths felt really forced. Hedwig, in particular, was a "shoot the bird" moment, instead of a "shoot the dog" trope. Having her cage get hit by a random curse during the exit from Privet drive... well, it felt like the author wanted to smack me across the face with a large haddock and shout "Pay attention! This is the LAST book! I can kill anyone now! And I will, every time the plot seems to slow down!"

Also, the circumstances that led up to that chase scene make me want to retch at the utter stupidity. Honestly, I think JKR was tired of people complaining about Harry being forced to stay in an abusive environment, so she crafted that scene to impress all of us with exactly how 'uber' the blood wards actually are. The only problem is that I was totally distracted by the total stupidity of the Order in waiting until the last minute to move Harry. His birthday is a publicly known fact, and the idea that the blood wards would go down when he turned 17 and can't be too hard for Voldemort to figure out, ESPECIALLY SINCE SNAPE SEEMED TO HAVE CHANGED SIDES WHEN HE MURDERED THE HEAD OF THE ORDER. Isn't it at least conceivable to them that he might have told what he knew?

So why didn't they move him out of there 19.5 days earlier? Did Voldemort sit on Harry's doorstep every second of every day since the end of his sixth year? Doubtful, since the order members were able to enter without being killed. Yes, Dumbledore was dead, but Moody was an experienced Auror, for Pete's sake! Grimmauld place was secure enough to use, even with a Voldemort-run ministry.

Yeah, I know... but this seems to be the thread for it.

[unknown406]

I would like to add that the whole polyjuice gambit could have been done much easier by having Harry polyjuice as one of his relatives and simply calling a cab...but wait, that would involve actual intelligent thinking, and we can't have wizards acting in a logical fashion! That would cause the universe to explode!

[unknown552]

Aren't there also nifty things called portkeys? That you know, probably someone in the Order knew how to make? (Barty jr. could make them!)
There really isn't any way they could be more hated by the ministry, so who cares if regular folks aren't supposed to make them?

And actually, I don't really remember who all died since most of the DH deaths seemed to have no point beyond jerking some heart-strings.
Since his was actually important and meaningful, Snape's death was the only good character's I can reliably remember most times.

[SquirrelyRequiem]

Hedwig, Moody, Snape, Remus, Tonks, Fred and...I really can't remember the last one...

It's a little odd I suppose, but I loathed Hedwig's death the most.

[unknown560]

The contrived stupidity upon which much of the plot of volumes 3-5 rest. How did fifteen years elapse without at least one person getting a bit suspicious about the circumstance of Sirius Black's imprisonment? Where did Ron's massive jealousy issues come from when he knew a great deal about Harry's home life, and is far from stupid? And what the crispy peking duck was supposed to be in it for Fudge to refuse to act in the face of strong evidence for a major terrorist threat?

[Kitsune_Akatsuki]

Oh, yea..... Hedwigs death. I don't know why, but when she died I cried more than when Dumbledore died...... Okay, I practically bawled my eyes out in the last book at the following scenes: Hedwig's death, Moody's Death, Forges's(I'm sorryyyyy, thats just so funny....) death, and well, all the 'good guy's' deaths..... And Snape's death was cross between a 'YES!!! FINALLY!!!!!' and '....I feel sorta bad for you even if you were a major prick....' moment.

[ashez2ashes]

Aren't there also nifty things called portkeys? That you know, probably someone in the Order knew how to make? (Barty jr. could make them!)
There really isn't any way they could be more hated by the ministry, so who cares if regular folks aren't supposed to make them?

Voldemort's crew seemed to be full of more skillfull wizards. The good guys were also heavily relying on DumbleDore (and later Moody)... too heavily, imho. So when those guys kicked it, the Order didn't know what to do with themselves. Where as you HAD to be competetant in Voldy's crew, because he'd just do away with you if you werent... (through mind control or just by killing you). There weren't any 'oh no, that might be darrrrrrk magic!' I can't even read about it less I be tainted!' bs over there either.

[Psalm Of Fire]

That, is a very good point.

[unknown406]

The biggest wall banger for me in Deathly Hallows, a book which caused me to simply stop reading for large periods of time just to get over moronic events and plot points several times, was when Rowling fails economics forever creating the Goblin concept of ownership. How does an economy function where all non-consumable products are permanently considered the property of the creator? It's like she created the concept to fill a plot hole, then forgot to consider the implications of it in the greater setting.

[bibliophile20]

Delusionist: She does that. Biggest plot hole introduced by Deathly Hallows? Taboo words. If it can be done, and has that sort of response time, why not make the incantation for the Dark Mark Taboo?

[MrRigger2]

I've thought about this, and I think I've said something about the way Taboo works on here before. As to why the Taboo isn't applied to incantations like those for the Unforgivables or the Dark Mark spell, it's because it can't be applied. Incantations are words of power, and Taboo can't work on words of power. There's a big difference between a name that people associate with power (Voldemort) and a word of power (something that changes something, like a spell).

If it could have been used like that, I suspect it would have been done long before the books ever started. While wizards aren't necessarily logical, they are frightened little sheep, and if they had a way to take the Dark Wizards major spells away, I'd say they would. Even if you want to think that the Ministers have all been irretrievably corrupt and in the pockets of the Dark Wizards, they are also interested in keeping themselves in power. And keeping the general public alive is a good tactic. Letting them die despite actions that could have been taken otherwise is a good way to end up out of office.

Also, even if the Taboo had been held on spells like the Unforgivables long enough for them to "die out", meaning that no one's been able to say them for so long that no one's been able to teach them to the next generation, remember that Dark Wizards are the nasty sort. They'd just come up with new ways of doing things to torture people.

MrRigger