How good are the later Harry Potter books really? In terms of prose and worldbuilding.I know that the early books are comfy and whimsical children's books (or supposedly so, I have never read them) but what about the ones that are aimed at the older reader as they grew?
>>25587583Don’t expect much in way of prose. I’m sure the worldbuilding is pretty solid though.
>>25587583They get more serious, the plots get more elaborate (but still full of holes), there's more drama and enotional complexity. There's more world-buildong but nothing that holds up under any scrutiny.
Rancid dogshit by an author who got too big too fast and started to believe she was some queen of literature and above editing or critique
>>25587596Solid is the one thing HP world building is definitely NOT.Creative, fanciful, funny, and elaborate? Sure. But it's not solid.
>>25587583>How good are the later Harry Potter books really?Not good. But there's a solution for that issue.
J.K. Rowling is pretty good at world building and for the most part I think the plot is mostly Ok. The personal relationships between characters could stand to be improved.
>>25587606>>25587601Can someone post an example of where the system crumbles?
>>25587613I'm just here to yearn.
>>25587596>the worldbuilding is pretty solidSo solid that it has generated millions of fanfics in an effort to fix the most glaring holes.
>>255875831. A lesser Roal Dahl. Serviceable but unremarkable2. Worst one by far. Boring and meandering even by children book standards3. Grossly overrated, but lose all the quiddich stuff and it's at least an improvement4. Starts the page crawl, but picks up the pace. It's alright. Also no quiddich5. Best one by far. Has actually some insight into teenage angst and it's the only one where the usual mystery gimmick has a satisfying end6. A step back to be sure, but has great passages about grief that are a highlight of the whole series. Second best7. Second worst one. Nothing redeemable about it>proseUnremarkable across the board but also inoffensive>worldbuildingwho cares?
>>25587668I wanna see Luna's glaring hole
>>25587606>>25587668Yeah. I don’t know what I meant there. it’s been over 20 years since I read them and I was like 12 so forgive the retardation.
>>25587625One that pops to mind is how they spend a huge chunk of the last book looking for ways to destroy the mcguffins with the magic sword and the monster poison cited as the only way to do so, only to find out that there is actually a fire spell that does just that easily and a low level malfoy goon is the one to cast it of all people and apparently hermione knew it. Why the fuck didn't you use it earlier with the other items you bitch?
>>25587625Dragons? Various other magical plants and creatures in the entire series that just conveniently stay concealed from muggles. Basically the entire central conceit of the "wizarding community" living in secret alongside muggles is just impossible to maintain.Various spells and magical functions like only being used when it's convenient for the story and ignored when it's not, like Time Turners.The entire plot of Goblet of Fire.
Bad. They're bad books for dumb people.
Harry Potter lacks important female characters Malfoid fixes that a bit
>>25587789
>>25587684>3. Grossly overratedI think the movie version boosts the reputation of this one. And the time travel gimmick is well-executed (even if it is retarded from a world-building perspective)>>25587694I knew what you meant, I think, I'm just a pedant nitpicking the choice of words.
How does Harry Potter compare to The Worst Witch?
>>25587836I recently reread the book and the movie basically changed all the characters for the worse and lost a lot of the atmosphere in the book.>>25587583I lost all interest after book five, which is frustrating but quite good. Although I was close to the character ages when I read the last two books, I found the romantic subplots in HBP incredibly annoying and DH too was in desperate need of editing. What do you mean introducing the title artefacts out of nowhere when you already have horcruxes? Absolute bullshit.
>>25587878>I recently reread the book and the movie basically changed all the characters for the worse and lost a lot of the atmosphere in the book.Yeah but critic-types still sucked off the movie a lot, in contrast to the first two movies, and it does have a pretty good dramatic payoff at the end.
>>25587878To put it another way, the Azkaban movie has a reputation of being "the good one" while the rest are just kinda decent blockbuster stuff. Not because it's accurate to the book, but because it actually works well as a movie. So I think this attitude bleeds back into the book conversations somewhat.
>Romance for womenSo this vampire GOD millionaire and this other werewolf GOD Gazillionaire are fighting over me and I have lots of sex>Romance for menGrow up all your life with an annoying girl that picks on you but eventually you both begin to slowly see the good parts of each other and fall in love, after countless battles and struggles side by side you get married and have a happy family, the end.
>>25587583I loved Order of the Phoenix but hated Half-Blood Prince so much I never read the last one. In retrospect I'm pretty sure it's because I "aged out" between those two.
>>25587963Sex with Rin
>>25587583HP books are amazing when you're aging with them. They're pretty mediocre otherwise
>>25587613That's the first ai image I've seen where Harry has actual green eyes
The Half Blood Prince was by far the best of all. Good pacing, interesting characters outside of 'whimsy and quirky' creatures and Hermione being the most dull female charachter ever. Just constantly on mood swings and serving as a walking Wikipedia for plot convenience. Phoenix was a dull, sloth crawl. The first 4 have good energy and interesting dynamic mystery (generally). Rowling was terrible at writing action scenes. The flash backs in HBP provide interesting character lore that serves the plot.
>>25587583They're pretty simple. It's clear she (and her ghost writers) had no plan and was just making up shit for each individual book. There's lots of retcons and plot holes.
Plot holes is the least interesting criticism ever especially in a children's series about wizardry. Honestly if that's your go to barb against fucking Harry Potter, you're just a shit reader in general.That's not to elevate the series. I grew up with them and even I felt it was both straining against its premise and yet not really rising above it. Chiefly it both depends on and is limited by its need to stay isolated from the "real world" so we never quite get the sense of how the stakes and consequences of their actions affect them. But fine, it's a kids book. In the realm of mania books, there're lot worse than Harry Potter.What is done well is the characterization. Most of them may be archetypes, but they're clearly defined and understandable as people. This especially becomes notable with book 4, where the disguising of the conspiracy works because of the facade of Moody being this gruff battle scarred hardliner. It's when Harry has such personalities to rub off that the books really work imo. Dumbledore being the main example. It's when he's by himself that the plot needs to take flights of fancy and convience, like the contrivances around the hallows in the last book.
>>25587789I mean it's got Hermione and Luna.
First ones are the best if you are a children and your parents read them to you. The older you get the worst they get
>>25587715This is a good example.>>25587782This is not. You are gay and autistic, although I would've preferred to read about a world where wizards/witches and muggles are segregated but aware of each other.
>>25587583THEY BECOME THEMATICALLY DARKIER AND SCARIER THE FURTHER YOU PROGRESSTHE SOLVING OF THESE ISSUES AS YOU NIGH THE END IS LITERARILY SATISFYING, HOWEVER
>>25587583seeing rightoids get one shot by ai genderbent CP and going "I need to read baby books" might genuinely be the most pathetic thing we have got to in the history of online culture
>>25587963The true male equivalent of those depraved erotica books is shit like Mushoku Tensei.
>>25592055They'd lose their minds if they knew 13yr old girls have been drawing and writing about genderbent HP characters, including Malfoy, since the mid 2000s. They're making all this noise over basic fandom slop.
>>25587583I loved the first four when I was a kid, they were imaginative and had this whimsy and a sense of wonder. Starting with book five, it turned into a teen YA series with more "mature" tone, I guess. I think the trick was that the series matured with its readers but I was binge reading them at ten years old, it was quite a tonal whiplash for me to go from a silly tale about wizards in a weird castle to whatever happened in later books.
>>25590037>(and her ghost writers)Yeah, you can tell 3 onward had ghost writers. 1 and 2 are mostly complete dogshit, so I'd say its fair to say she wrote them. 3 feels half written by her and 4-7 she wasn't even involved beyond being an ideas guy. I don't see many people talking about or acknowledging it though.
>>25587625Everywhere. The wizards world makes no sense, she didn't have enough creative capacity to come up with something otherworldly enough but still believable
I'm curious as to why don't wizards in HP live like literal godkings over the muggles. The secrecy thing is a joke.
