Studio Calico Refugees

The bitterness is about the cheap and lazy ways Rowling ended her series. So much had been set up but led to no particular impact on the plot or brought any significant twists:
- the (ultimately pretty lame) prophecy and Neville being a tragically wasted opportunity for some complexity and shift of heroic focus;
- the terrible fate of Snape who had everything to become the most complex and fleshed out character of the books but was left in the (again) easy lovestruck zone, no other questions asked (or answered) (this does not pertain to his dying, it was obvious he'd sacrifice himself in the end but it's how we got there that is the letdown);
- the excessive reliance on poor and easy emotional manipulation (let's kill off the protaganist's pet, let's kill off Dobby, etc.: too many deaths didn't tie into the overall plot but were just there to shock and cause the reader distress, nothing more to the story which was in complete contrast to Dumbledore's meaningful death in the previous book);
- the build-up of the heavy focus on unforgivable curses which indicated Harry (or Neville, or Ron/Hermione) would eventually have to face a morally grey decision to either kill Voldemort or save Harry but again, went freakin' nowhere except to draw a hard evil/good line in the sand (that's not how life goes and that's definitely not how transition into adulthood and the accompanying ever more composite reality go) (Expelliarmus and not Avada Kedavra, art thou kidding me?);
- the nonsensical Christ-like resurrection of Harry which robbed him of actual agency in his grand moment (Thanks, I hate it. Harry deserved much better);
- the numbness of important deaths like Fred (both Ron and quite a few of us readers - albeit not all - who were exhausted and done with the "compensatory" deaths at that point, as Rowling herself later admitted);
- the Ginny x Harry and Ron x Hermione pairings which clearly made no sense at the end point of the story;
- which leads me to the amount of build-up where characters weren't fleshed out or even plot devices but just props, a major shame for a series that started out so well (seriously, the first 2 - and part of Prisoner of Azkaban although things already went downhill with that one - are very well-written);
- the bloody never-ending camping. 

Rowling lost her sense of tight and informed writing as the series went on (and the books grew thicker). She retained an excellent pen for action scenes but could not keep up with the shift in genre and audience target. She wasn't cut out to write an epic and she had such great power that her publisher couldn't push back and point out her obvious (and ever-growing) faults. I really thought she'd catch herself and make up for some of the big errors she had lured her series into with the final book. I was wrong (although it had its enjoyable parts and a very enjoyable overall storyline - except the camping). It could've ended so much better, so much more fleshed out and complex but instead it went with dualistic clichés, cheap emotional tricks and a lack of consideration for character development and maturation.

This doesn't mean I dislike the series. I've reread the books quite a few times (granted, I skipped DH a few of those times). I keep fond memories of all the hours spent on the Leaky Cauldron (and the live reading discussion for the final book!), of the essay on personal transformation and alchemy I wrote on the series afterwards, of waiting in line until 1 AM to get Deathly Hallows (Central European time being one hour ahead of UK time), etc. I'm just very disappointed in how it all ended when it could've been great. The irony of the situation is that DH contains one excellent and very well carried out piece of writing, The Tale of the Three Brothers (Rowling shines in shorter, contained prose where she doesn't lose herself in adding on but focuses on full and complete development).

*gets off soapbox* *counts* It's been 15 years... (I'm still pissed, hehe)  

Disclaimer: I was a student in Literature at the time of the release of the final book. I obviously read the book through this specific lens which did not necessarily line up with popular opinion (although I was far from being the only one underwhelmed and left feeling frustrated on the Leaky Cauldron that night).