On Saturday, May 21st, 2022, at 1 P.M. Hogwarts time, James and Lily were in Lily's room to record another video for Lily Luna's World.
"Hello, all," greeted Lily cheerfully as the recording began, "My name is Lily Luna Potter and welcome back to Lily Luna's World. I am once again joined by my favorite brother James Sirius Potter and today we are going to be reviewing the book Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."
James held up the book for the viewers to see the front cover.
This cover had a huge prominence of green and showed Harry and Dumbledore in a pensieve.
"So," explained Lily, "We are not going to cover everything from this book but are going to pick our spots."
"One spot we are going to pick is the memories," piped up James, "As Half Blood Prince is largely a backstory story about Voldemort."
"So," declared Lily firmly, "Voldemort obviously came from a lineage of bad people, and I want to draw attention to a person that doesn't get discussed much but is a genuinely terrible person: Merope Gaunt. Merope used Love Potions on Tom Riddle Sr. Love Potions are half mind rape drugs and half date rape drugs and should be treated as such."
"And when she couldn't bear to keep using them and Tom Riddle Sr. had CLEARLY not come remotely close to falling in love with her, she showed her truest colors when she made no effort to attempt to keep herself alive to be there for her son," added James matter of factly.
"Morfin wasn't any better in regularly attacking muggles and Marvolo had his own issues being abusive to his daughter and valuing heirlooms more than his own children," declared Lily bluntly.
"Speaking of Voldemort," interjected James, "He was actually incredibly stupid with his approach to his Horcruxes. By using historically significant objects linked to historically significant people and placing them in meaningful locations, he actually made his secret MUCH easier to discover."
"You're right James," agreed Lily, "Had he turned candy wrappers or empty potion bottles into Horcruxes and hid them in very random locations in the world, it's much less likely that his secret would have been discovered. And someone did guess he had made Horcruxes, well, good luck guessing what they might be or where they might be hidden."
"Voldemort's arrogance was his weakness," explained James, "He also assumed he was the only one who knew about the Room of Hidden Things. Voldemort lost in large part because he was too sure of himself."
"So," said Lily matter of factly, "In addition to being a backstory story, Half Blood Prince is also a setup story. The things that happen in Half Blood Prince set the stage for the war that occurs in Deathly Hallows."
"From a literary point of view," smiled James, "I love how important Draco disarming Dumbledore is but how you don't learn that until the next book."
"It's interesting to look at it now and realize that led to Harry becoming the master of the Elder Wand, without that disarming, Dumbledore would have died the master of the Elder Wand and if Voldemort breaking into Dumbledore's tomb to take the Elder Wand is Voldemort defeating Dumbledore, then Voldemort WOULD have become the master of the Elder Wand." mused Lily.
"Our views on Dumbledore as well as Snape overall will be part of our Deathly Hallows review and the same goes for Snape," explained James.
"One character we will share our opinions on here is Slughorn," continued Lily, "He was obviously a very good Potions teacher and brewer, but way too vain and way too obsessed with connections. Seriously, thinking Mclaggen is so great because he had an uncle who was big in the Ministry? And of course, the whole "collecting" thing."
"Slughorn was never Death Eater material," said James fairly, "But I think he deserves more criticism for never publicly revealing that he told young teenage Voldemort about Horcruxes. If he had spoken up publicly about this after Voldemort's power broke at the end of his first war, then maybe some effort could have been made to find and destroy the Horcruxes while Voldemort didn't have a body and maybe he never rises again. Slughorn had a responsibility to reveal what he knew there and didn't."
"He was a coward who cared more about what people would think about him if the truth got than about the importance of the truth getting out," observed Lily, "He did far more damage by staying silent later on than he did by telling Voldemort about the Horcruxes in the first place. If Slughorn had spoken up about this after Voldemort's first downfall, maybe Voldemort would have died before he could ever have risen again."
"One thing I liked about Half Blood Prince's writing," said James approvingly, "Is the fact we got two alternate point of view chapters at the start. And Spinner's End does set up well an uncertainty about whether Snape is on Dumbledore's side, Voldemort's side, or only his own side."
"There could have been a few more alternate point of view chapters in the series," agreed Lily, "I also like the lack of review of the previous books in the early chapters. Too much of that bogged down the early chapters of Goblet of Fire."
"The writing of Half Blood Prince seems much smoother and more natural than that of Goblet of Fire and it flows more naturally," said James briskly.
"Hey, James," asked Lily, "What do you think of Draco?"
"Draco Malfoy was a bully and bigot and he was NOT carrying a heart of gold beneath that sneer," replied James a nanosecond later, "He's a bully, a bigot, a racist, the WOAT prefect choice, and a fundamentally bad person. He doesn't deserve credit or praise for not being able to kill Dumbledore. That was cowardice, not character. "
"There's too much Draco whitewashing in the Harry Potter fandom," moaned Lily bitterly, "He nearly got five people killed because he didn't care about any collateral damage his attempts to kill Dumbledore through indirect means would cause. Harry, Ron, Katie, Rosmerta, and Slughorn could have all easily been killed by Draco's schemes."
"If I get going on how dumb the popularness of Draco is, " snarled James, "We'd still be here at the end of the year."
"Now for a bombshell," dropped Lily, "As bad as Umbitch is, I think Greyback is actually worse and more repulsive."
"There's a very valid argument that Greyback is the most repulsive character in the series," agreed James, "Umbitch is bad, but intentionally positioning himself to be able to attack as a werewolf and even biting people when not transformed. He's got to be the sickest character in the series, that's for sure."
"Especially attacking children, tweens, and teens," said Lily firmly, "I'm surprised Greyback isn't brought up more often in the way Umbitch is. I have to agree that he is the sickest character in the series."
James and Lily both mimicked vomiting.
"For the school stuff," piped up Lily, "What do you think about the Half Blood Prince's Potions book?"
"I'm of two minds on that," answered James at once, "On one hand, dad was quite right to use the alternate Potions methods when it was clear they were working better than the official instructions. On the other hand, Hermione was right that dad was irresponsible to use unknown spells."
"Someone, preferably mom," reasoned Lily, "Should have sat dad and Hermione and intervened in their arguments over the Half Blood Prince's Potions book until they came to an agreement where Hermione accepted that dad would continue to use the alternate Potions instructions while dad would agree to stop trying out unknown spells."
"And speaking of school stuff, what about the O.W.L. results?" inquired James.
"Hermione being the best student in year is well documented," responded Lily, "But I think dad is a very underrated student. I mean an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Es in Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, and Care of Magical Creatures is pretty decent. Not on Hermione's level, but quite decent in and of itself. And I like Neville being an O student in Herbology. Gives him a niche you know."
"Now," declared James, "I have to acknowledge Neville and Luna for responding to Hermione's summons on the night of the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. They clearly showed their loyalty when it was all on the line."
"It was disappointing that more of the D.A. didn't respond there," spoke Lily softly and quietly.
"So, Lily, I think it's time for ratings. I'll give Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince a nine out of ten as a story and a book," said James clearly, "The writing is smooth and flows naturally and there are some very good writing elements such as alternate points of view in the first two chapters. All in all, I think the backstory story elements and the setup elements blended together well."
"I'll have to go along with nine out of ten," agreed Lily, "You summoned it up pretty well there. Half Blood Prince is overall well written and paced and blends the backstory story and setup story together well. It also lacked unnecessary subplots that never really mattered such as Grawp or spew."
"That's all we have," said James matter of factly, "But be on the lookout for our video review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
"We'll see you next time on Lily Luna's world," cooed Lily, "Until then, Potters out."
And James and Lily both waved to their viewers as the video ended.
A shout out to the following members who have added James, Lily, and Brother-Sister Fluff to their favorites and/or follows lists since the last update:
Danielrm.03
Tiffany Leigh oakes.
Much love from Arizona for all the support. Love you all-Michael. :)