Even though the most recent Fantastic Beasts movie did not do nearly as well in cinemas as the bosses at Warner Brothers might have liked, there is still clearly a great deal of life left in the Harry Potter franchise as a whole. In part, this stems from just how exciting the books remain, even so many years after the last one hit bookshelves.
However, those who have undertaken a reread of the various Harry Potter books have also had to contend with the fact that there are some aspects of them that don’t hold up well to scrutiny in 2022. To take just one example, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a number of issues that become more obvious with the passage of the years.
The Lavender Brown Incident Is Annoying
Lavender Brown is one of the more irritating characters to have been introduced into the Harry Potter story. Her romance plot with Ron is cloying and convenient, meant to separate Ron from Hermione and to make him realize how she is the one that he truly wants to be with.
It is, moreover, one of those moments that feels particularly juvenile. While this makes sense — the characters are adolescents, after all — it does make it difficult to take it seriously upon a reread of the series.
Harry Is Totally Irresponsible
Though he might be one of the best characters in the series, Harry is criminally irresponsible in The Half-Blood Prince . Most notably, he starts casting spells at others, without really knowing what they are capable of doing.
Obviously, the most obvious and nearly deadly example of this is sectumsempra, which he hurls at Draco. While Draco is certainly capable of doing his own morally reprehensible deeds in this book, this doesn’t excuse Harry’s negligence, since by this point he should know better than to use spells without having a firm knowledge of what they are going to do.
Horace Slughorn Is Pretty Terrible, Actually
Book fans know that there are many great professors at Hogwarts. However, it becomes clear throughout Half-Blood Prince that Horace Slughorn is not one of these. Though he might be charming and gregarious, he is also a coward.
It is particularly distressing to see just how long he refuses to give Harry the information he needs to know about Voldemort and his Horcruxes. Given just how pivotal this information was to the Dark Lord’s eventual defeat, it’s all the more revealing that Slughorn chose to privilege his own vanity above the well-being of the rest of the Wizarding World.
Once Again Dumbledore Should Have Told Harry More
For all that he might be one of the most powerful wizards, Dumbledore is someone who is, at best, a deeply morally questionable individual. This becomes ever clearer as the novels go on, and it is particularly glaring in Half-Blood Prince.
Though it will later become clear that he was dying and thus ordered Snape to kill him to spare Draco’s soul, he reveals none of this to Harry. Instead, as he always did, he assumed that shielding Harry was more important than anything else, when in reality just telling him the truth–or at least more of it than he usually did–would have been to the young man’s definite benefit.
Snape Also Should Have Been More Forthcoming
Snape is another character who caused numerous problems by the fact that he was not nearly as forthcoming as he should have been. Most notably, he didn’t take any effort to tell Harry of Dumbledore’s injunction.
Clearly, from the book’s point of view, this is meant to make him more tragic when the truth comes out. A reread, however, makes it clear that he could have saved himself, and the rest of the characters, a great deal of trouble and heartache if he had just been honest about things to begin with.
It’s Messed Up That Dumbledore Doesn’t Try To Stop Draco
As one of the most notable members of Slytherin House, it makes sense that Draco would be tasked with killing Dumbledore. However, what is particularly distressing to realize on a reread is how much Dumbledore was aware of this and yet did not take steps to actually help Draco.
It is true that he ordered Snape to take his own life to spare Draco the horror of doing it. One would have thought, however, that someone with Dumbledore’s power would have done more to help one of the students in his own school from becoming a pawn in the hands of Voldemort.
Ron And Hermione’s Romance Is Tedious
It was clear from the first book that Ron and Hermione were going to be one of the final couples of the series. This becomes more obvious as the books go on, and it arguably becomes most obvious in Half-Blood Prince.
Given that they are adolescents, however, they have go through quite a bit of back-and-forth during the course of the book. While this might be appealing when one reads it as a teenager, it is something that doesn’t hold up to increased scrutiny, and it’s exasperating to see them behave in the way they do.
There Are Too Many Love Potions
Given the centrality of the love plots to the story of Half-Blood Prince, the story is filled with love potions. This is a problem for at least two reasons. First, it really is a bit of a plot contrivance, a means of getting characters to do things that they would otherwise not do so the story can go in useful directions.
More sinisterly, though, the entire conceit of a love potion is particularly vexing in the post-Me Too era. It’s difficult to consent when one is under the influence of a potion, after all.
It Doesn’t Feel Enough Like The Penultimate Book
Though they’re enjoyable, it has to be said that many of the Harry Potter books suffer from some pacing problems. This is particularly true with Half-Blood Prince, which has the important function of setting up the finale.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite measure up in this regard. Yes, there are some important plot developments, but in the end there are simply too many loose ends that Deathly Hallows has to tie up, which stymies the final volume’s ability to really tie up the Harry Potter series in a way that feels wholly satisfying.
The Golden Trio Act Out Of Character
Harry Potter relies on its characters to drive the action. This is precisely what makes Half-Blood Prince such an exasperating book to read. Many of the characters, most notably Hermione and Ron, act out of character, or at least they take their characteristics to extremes.
This is particularly evident in the scenes involving Ron and Hermione and their courtship. These moments, while seemingly authentic to the book’s focus on their adolescent antics, nevertheless means that they cease to act like the characters that book readers have known to grow and love up to this point.
