Brian Cole > Recent Status Updates

Brah, why didn’t the escaped slaves get up into the AT-AT? Why are they down on the ground vulnerable? “What have I done” brah, what did Han do? He’s responsible for not getting everyone loaded up before he got the AT-AT moving!

The authors seem to hate Piett so much, characterizing him like some sniveling, reaching, prick. But I always liked Piett because when the time came and he lost the Falcon, he didn’t make excuses, didn’t throw his crew under the bus, he just went straight to Vader and took full responsibility (and died for it).

This is what I’ve always been talking about. This is why Steph is such a better author than EL James. While Anna gets shoved off and isolated from what’s going on, Bella is here sitting in on secret werewolf meetings. Meyer always keeps the reader where the interesting stuff is.

Ok I want sure about this one at first but now I’m sold. Girl steals the guy’s gym shirt, masturbates to the smell, washes it and gives it back, only to find out that the guy lent it to his friend before it got “lost” so it actually smelled like the friend. It’s so fkd up in all the best ways. Okay, I’m down for this story’s nonsense, let’s see if it keeps it up.

“make it be good” girl. You’re outside… in a public park… on the grass… in the cold… and it’s your first time…. I’m not saying it can’t be done or that there isn’t an appeal, but I feel like that’s a big ask spur the moment!

I legit had to go read the Wikipedia summary to make sure I was following along correctly. I more or less was in the right track about the nature of the two POVs, but still it’s wild how many details flew over my head. This is a challenging book to follow. Not a huge fan of the writing style this time, but I have a feeling it’ll all come together before the end.

Nice to see Caldric finally get it. Him finally maybe coming to terms that his elf gf will never be sexually monogamous to him. Really hope this sticks bc his constant fretting over her fidelity is deeply annoying.

I’ve never had an author before announce the beginning of the final act with “This is the interesting part.”

I find it funny that early on I had a pretty strong idea on what the alien's look like based on the description, but then by the end of the story they all just kind of turned into Transformers in my mind.

This book is pure shenanigans and I both love it and want to pull my hair out. It's a bit much! NOW there's a potential office scandal on top of 1) in love with best friend, 2) gay and afraid to come out, 3) pretending to pursue men, 4) found great hookup but f-d it up, 5) company downsizing, 6) everyone in company lo-key hates her, 7) accidentally told bf about aforementioned office scandal. I hope it all works out

I'm so sad that Hedwig's last hours are marred by her being surly. That' so freaking sad...

There had to have been some serious emotional abuse and neglect in the Evans home for Petunia to have turned out that way. It doesn't really justify how she treated Harry, but the way she talked her parents' pride in having "a witch in the family" spoke volumes. And I mean really though, who wouldn't build an infinite store of resentment over being left out of something like that?

I mean, sure I like the idea of Dudley being a chill dude at the end but there's no build up. No letters sent by Dudley to Harry while he's at Hogwarts in secret wanting to know what he's up to or anything tying them together at all. This should have had some lead-up. It could have hit harder and felt more meaningful if Dudley had started coming around by book 5 or 6.

Hmm, no. No. Sorry, but no. I've been binging the series from book one until now without pause and no, you can trick me with this sudden face-turn of Dudley's. He's a piece of shit, he's always been a piece of shit, he'll grow up to be a piece of shit. He probably grew up to be the Harry Potter universe's Boris Johnson. You can't have a character like this just all of the sudden turn out okay. It doesn't work.

I used to think Harry's moody, rash, angry behavior in this book could be attributed more to puberty than anything else. Now I'm reading this and realizing beyond a doubt he's suffering from PTSD. He witnessed the murder of a student, was tied up, cut open, watched the killer of his parents brought back to power, then forced to duel with said killer. Harry's messed up and needs some help.

So was JK aware at the time of writing this that her story takes place in the 90s? Because she mentions specifically that the Dursleys have a widescreen television. Those weren't around in the 90s.... but they were at the time of publishing. Makes me think she originally didn't have a set year in mind of when this was all taking place. Makes sense since at no point does she ever mention an exact date until the end.

And yeah, the Ron/Hermione thing really does kind of come out of nowhere. You start to see it starting here in this book and it's just... no. Ron and Hermione never show much chemistry. I liked it as a kid because it felt right for the opposites to be together, but as a grown up who's been in relationships, opposites don't make for cute couples. And Ron and Hermione aren't cute at all together.

Also I have been taking JK's advice and reading Hermione as black the entire time since book one and it fits pretty well, although for sure the discrimination and personal insults sent her way by Slytherins this time around bite harder and feel racially charged in addition to the wizarding sense. But anyway, I am enjoying my re-read of the series. I'd say it all still holds up pretty well.

And I have to give a little JK criticsm here: did she really have to make Hagrid's Care for Magical Creatures storyline as frustratingly uninteresting as possible? I understand in universe why he sucks so bad but it makes for miserable reading. I understand he was spooked by what happened in his first class with the Hippogriffs but it really didn't need to go this direction and get so dower and boring. Raw deal.

Speaking of discrimination, Islamophobia is strong among English wizards what with the magic carpet ban that keeps getting brought up. The explanation they give early on is that it could be mistaken for a regular rug and end up in muggle hands and I'm like What? What the... WTF do you think BROOMS are for? How is a flying broom any different than a flying carpet? So yeah, that either makes perfect sense or no sense.

The unspoken implications of impure-bloodline discrimination stands out to me strongly this time. I find it hard to believe there hasn't been mass genocide in the past of people born with magical powers to muggle parents what with the numerous people in power who strongly disagree with their admittance into Hogwarts and other wizarding schools.

Okay, I need to get a bunch of random thoughts out of my head. First off, like many people, it's been years since I read these books and coming back in my 30s since reading them in my teens has been a trip. But yeah, this time around Snape isn't nearly as amusing as he was before. He's such an unlikable shit. Harry and Ron are both as annoying as I remember them being in this book. Puberty's a bitch.

I would have some very serious, very sincere questions for any women who have read this book, specifically about this part, mainly: is Bev well written here? Are her reactions, as a teenage girl, to seeing naked boys, the way a girl might really react? Also her feelings upon considering what the boy she has a crush on looks like naked? I’m very curious, as I always am when a man attempts to write women...

I wonder why the stuff with the adults is scaring me more than the stuff with the kids? I just finished Ben's experience in the Library and I'm sweating, afraid to look in the shadows. Maybe because I am an adult and somehow it targets me more directly, idk.