I think you won't find anyone who will claim that Rowling is some sort of literary genius or that her take on things is extremly original. Also I think everyone here will probably agree that Voldemort makes a classic Evil Overlord error by his choice of soul-shard-containers it is not even his only mistake along those lines.
But I think that judgeing JKR's work on the basis of how easily you can make fan-fic contiunations from them is not very fair. I would expect that as any well plotted series nears its end the option would grow fewer and fewer. Writing a fic that branches of after the first 10 or 30 chapters of a seventy chapter story is different than deviating after 60+ chapters. Ambiguous characters get rounded out and motivations become clearer towards the end. That is what you would expect.
Whining because it gets harder to hook Harry up with your favorite character or because you can't bash characters you dislike the same way you used to is really unbecoming. You might as well blame JKR for finally clearing up the confusion over Blaise Zabini's true gender, because it robs you of the option of writing a female!Blaize story.
And its not really like you can't write a story in which Dumbeldor is manipulative anymore past HBP. You just have to try a bit harder. Sure you can't have D be motivate by lust for power or the desire to steal harry's inheritance without making a server retcon of the events of the final chapters, but those were rather stupid motivations anyway. If you have him manipulating everyone from Harry to Snape for what he belives the greater good you can easily include certain sacrfices that he had to make in order for his plan to succeed as part of his masterplan.
HBP does not mean the end for Manipulative!Dumbledor or Redeemed!Draco or Light!Snape. It just slightly constrains in how you write them.
The criticism that Voldemort is tupid makes even less sense. If all charcters acted inteligently you would not even have a story. The curriculum at hogwarts makes no sense. The rules for quiditch make no sense. The whole magical comunity makes no sense if you look at things to closely and to logically. You have to suspend your disbelief here instead of going constantly "If they can do X, why don't they simply use that to do Y?" all the time. You have to keep yourself from doing the math everytime something unlikely is mentioned. (Try multiplying the number of students in Harry's year at hogwarts with the estiamted average lifexpectancy of wizards and witches to get an estimate for the total british wizarding poulation. Contrast that number with some of the background of the wizarding world we got. It doesn't make any sense.)
The fantasy world of Harry Potter is impossible and unlikely. The charcters that poulate the world don't act like real people but like charcter populating a fantasy world. They act in cliches and stereotypes and not how a normal person would act in the same situation.
If the fact that Voldemort is an idiot bugs you this much you can always write an AU where a young Tom Riddle gets a magical message with the heading "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord" or something like this. Write a story about a Voldemort that like Ozymandias is not a "Republic Serial villain". There could be a good fic in such a premise if it can be made to work.
But I think that judgeing JKR's work on the basis of how easily you can make fan-fic contiunations from them is not very fair. I would expect that as any well plotted series nears its end the option would grow fewer and fewer. Writing a fic that branches of after the first 10 or 30 chapters of a seventy chapter story is different than deviating after 60+ chapters. Ambiguous characters get rounded out and motivations become clearer towards the end. That is what you would expect.
Whining because it gets harder to hook Harry up with your favorite character or because you can't bash characters you dislike the same way you used to is really unbecoming. You might as well blame JKR for finally clearing up the confusion over Blaise Zabini's true gender, because it robs you of the option of writing a female!Blaize story.
And its not really like you can't write a story in which Dumbeldor is manipulative anymore past HBP. You just have to try a bit harder. Sure you can't have D be motivate by lust for power or the desire to steal harry's inheritance without making a server retcon of the events of the final chapters, but those were rather stupid motivations anyway. If you have him manipulating everyone from Harry to Snape for what he belives the greater good you can easily include certain sacrfices that he had to make in order for his plan to succeed as part of his masterplan.
HBP does not mean the end for Manipulative!Dumbledor or Redeemed!Draco or Light!Snape. It just slightly constrains in how you write them.
The criticism that Voldemort is tupid makes even less sense. If all charcters acted inteligently you would not even have a story. The curriculum at hogwarts makes no sense. The rules for quiditch make no sense. The whole magical comunity makes no sense if you look at things to closely and to logically. You have to suspend your disbelief here instead of going constantly "If they can do X, why don't they simply use that to do Y?" all the time. You have to keep yourself from doing the math everytime something unlikely is mentioned. (Try multiplying the number of students in Harry's year at hogwarts with the estiamted average lifexpectancy of wizards and witches to get an estimate for the total british wizarding poulation. Contrast that number with some of the background of the wizarding world we got. It doesn't make any sense.)
The fantasy world of Harry Potter is impossible and unlikely. The charcters that poulate the world don't act like real people but like charcter populating a fantasy world. They act in cliches and stereotypes and not how a normal person would act in the same situation.
If the fact that Voldemort is an idiot bugs you this much you can always write an AU where a young Tom Riddle gets a magical message with the heading "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord" or something like this. Write a story about a Voldemort that like Ozymandias is not a "Republic Serial villain". There could be a good fic in such a premise if it can be made to work.