Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - POTENTIAL SPOILERS

[Kid Charlemagne]

Did anyone else see a resemblance in Harry going to the woods to offer himself to Moldybutt, to Aslan offering himself to the White Witch? He offers and doesn't put up any defense, they taunt and humiliate him, someone he loves is watching and helpless, he is killed and falls, they start laughing and jeering... I definitely saw a correlation.

Of course that goes back to far older tales than CS Lewis - to the story of Christ, and others besides. There was a very strong Joseph Campbell/Heroes Journey tinge to the story - Rowling was clearly looking for a very "classical" story structure.

 

[MerricB]

Read the book twice so far...

Great stuff.

On Voldemort and the Weasleys... we see in the last book that Voldemort really doesn't want to kill pureblood families. He will if he has to, but he wants them to convert to his side. There are really few pureblood families by this point (as Sirius says in book 5), so wiping out the Weasleys is somewhat counterproductive.

After all, Percy has shown him that the Weasleys can come to see his way...

Although The Deathly Hallows is primarily about Harry's search for the Horocruxes, it's as much about Dumbledore, and his flawed desire to find the Hallows.

The idea that whoever found the Hallows would master death is really not a property of the Hallows, but instead a prophecy that the one who united them (Harry) would master death by losing his fear of it. Harry survives Voldemort's killing curse in the forest due to the properties of the Elder Wand, his mother's blessing, and his own willingness to sacrifice himself, which, incidentally, then protects all those fighting against Voldemort against Lord V's spells during the final scenes...

Cheers!

 

[Dragonblade]

One plot gripe which I haven't seen mentioned is why was Voldemort a moron? He knew who all the Order of the Phoenix people were, and where they lived. Why weren't they dead or at least in Azkahban? Voldemort wasn't exactly known for merciful tendencies. People were dropping like flies and mudbloods were all getting sent to Azkahban, and yet the core opposition is allowed to run free. That just didn't work for me.

Two reasons. If they were forced to go on the run it would be harder for Voldemort's forces to keep tabs on them and it would make it much more obvious to the world that the Dark Lord had taken over. Harder for people to convince themselves to look the other way.

The second reason is they hoped that someone would slip and lead them to Harry while under surveillance.

 

[Vocenoctum]

The idea that whoever found the Hallows would master death is really not a property of the Hallows, but instead a prophecy that the one who united them (Harry) would master death by losing his fear of it. Harry survives Voldemort's killing curse in the forest due to the properties of the Elder Wand, his mother's blessing, and his own willingness to sacrifice himself, which, incidentally, then protects all those fighting against Voldemort against Lord V's spells during the final scenes...

Of course, funny enough, Harry never had all three at the same time, so...

Some centaur will be wandering around and find a resurrection stone!

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I wonder what a normal 7th year at Hogwarts is like.

 

[blargney the second]

I wonder what a normal *any* year at Hogwarts is like.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The idea that whoever found the Hallows would master death is really not a property of the Hallows, but instead a prophecy that the one who united them (Harry) would master death by losing his fear of it. Harry survives Voldemort's killing curse in the forest due to the properties of the Elder Wand, his mother's blessing, and his own willingness to sacrifice himself, which, incidentally, then protects all those fighting against Voldemort against Lord V's spells during the final scenes...

Cheers!

Not bad Merric. I'll buy that.

 

[SteelDraco]

I had a question that I didn't see resolved in the book.

Does it ever explain how the two Death Eaters find Harry and Co after they disapparate from Bill and Fleur's wedding? They appear in a Muggle neighborhood, and head into a cafe, where it turns out two Death Eaters are already there, waiting for them.

I don't remember any explanation given about how they knew where to go, though.

 

[bodhi]

I had a question that I didn't see resolved in the book.

Does it ever explain how the two Death Eaters find Harry and Co after they disapparate from Bill and Fleur's wedding? They appear in a Muggle neighborhood, and head into a cafe, where it turns out two Death Eaters are already there, waiting for them.

I don't remember any explanation given about how they knew where to go, though.

It's addressed later, when Ron rejoins Harry and Hermione. There's a Taboo instituted on the name "Voldemort", so saying it out loud notifies them where they speaker is (and anyone actually saying the name is probably fighting against him). And that's how they get captured later, when Harry forgets about the Taboo.

 

[Tiberius]

It's addressed later, when Ron rejoins Harry and Hermione. There's a Taboo instituted on the name "Voldemort", so saying it out loud notifies them where they speaker is (and anyone actually saying the name is probably fighting against him). And that's how they get captured later, when Harry forgets about the Taboo.

I'm surprised that, after they learned about the Taboo, they didn't decide to just refer to Voldemort as Tom. After all, Tom is substantially more common than Voldemort or Riddle; couldn't very well Taboo that. Still probably wouldn't have mattered; I suspect Harry would have forgotten himself, said the name, and gotten captured anyway.