It never fails to be irritating when someone takes a statement meant to mean a specific thing in a specific context and tries to apply the statement universally and literally to show it as BS. Dumble wasn\'t saying this to Voldemort and he didn\'t mean that Voldemort chose easy instead of right. He was talking to his students. In this context, the \"easy\" doesn\'t mean \"doing evil\" but \"standing by\". When Dumble says that his students will have to choose between right and easy he means they\'ll be facing the Death Eaters at some point and they will have to either choose to do nothing and let them win or do the hard thing and fight against them. In this context, Dumble is right. Standing by and doing nothing against the oppression is easy, but it won\'t make the oppression go away. Fighting them is hard, but it may pay off.
Other than that, I agree with the review.
Also, sloth is not necessarily entirely about lacking the motivation to act. Refusing to think for yourself or consider deeply out of moral laziness is a frequent trait of many villains, and stubbornly choosing to live a lie in blindness forever, for many people, easier than bringing themselves to acknowledge a painful truth as obvious as the nose on your face.
Sloth isn\'t just sitting on your couch all day covered in crumbs and beer stains, I guess is my point. And even setting aside the other guy\'s context, Dumbledore isn\'t making an absolute statement that the hard thing to do is always right, but that in everyone\'s life there will be a time where doing the right thing will be hard.
It\'s like, yeah, we\'re laser-focusing in on a comparatively minor portion of the review, but it\'s the major bit you yourself go in-depth on, with most of the rest being just lists of things you liked (and occasionally why, or quick comments on what they mean for the future of the series), and it\'s also the thing you open the review with. It was clearly something you were proud of, and therefore something you\'re opening yourself up to criticism on the basis of.
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We soon must all make a choice between what is right and what is easy
Is an entirely false dichotomy. And the reason for that is because it presupposes that what is wrong is easy and what is easy wrong. And contrary to what Yoda said in The Empire Strikes Back about how The Dark Side is quicker and easier sometimes to do the wrong thing actually requires hard work.
Of all the vile villains of Literature, I can’t think of a single one whose sin is sloth. Oscar Wilde said it best in An Ideal Husband, “Weak. I’m sick of that word being used to describe doing the wrong thing. Sometimes it isn’t an act of weakness to do the wrong thing. Sometimes it takes great strength and courage to do the wrong thing”. The ease or difficulty of something does not define its morality.
That said, there are a lot of good things about this book. The Backstory about Barty Crouch Jr makes him an impressive villain. I like Crouch Sr as an antihero. Dumbledore showing he’s capable of aggression towards CJ (Crouch Jr) such that Harry realizes why Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort ever feared was impressive.
Moody was actually CJ was an excellent plot twist. Though it does make the trend of breaking out of an inescapable prison less impressive.
I like the Wham Episode of Cedric’s murder. And Voldemort’s restoration is impressively deliberately terrifying.
On the more lighthearted side. I like Harry’s feud and reconciliation with Ron. I like Dobby’s reintroduction. And I like how SPEW satirizes the White Saviour complexes of Social Justice Warriors. And yes, I’m aware that changed in the sequels.
And I like how it sets the stage for the conflict with the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as well as the fact it pays attention to Neville’s Backstory.
All in all, I love this book