Harry Potter: It All Ends
Or, the epic vs. the personal
We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II over the weekend. While I wouldn’t consider myself a crazy-obsessive fan, I admit to having read every book at least twice. It’s a matter of practicality; my brain is like a sieve and I needed a refresher before jumping into each new book. Overall, I’m pleased with the series’ translation to film. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing is. What I missed the most when things ended up on the cutting room floor were the little character moments, bits the story could do without (in that they could be easily removed without the plot collapsing), but which made the books so much richer. It’s perfectly understandable - a two and a half hour movie doesn’t have the same luxury to explore every nuance as an eight hundred-page book. After all, that’s part of the reason people still read.
Something that only struck me with the last film adaptation was J.K. Rowling’s relentless insistence on characters. Even when spells are flying and the world is coming to an end, it’s all about the characters.
Spoilers below the cut.
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After the movie, we were discussing the final battle at Hogwart’s. My husband, who has not read the books, made a passing comment to the effect that he was impressed with the scene, but as fantasy battles go, nothing quite beats the Battle for Pelennor Fields for sheer epic sweep. I agree. But that’s not what battles in Harry Potter are about. The wizarding world is lost and won in individual duels, face to face fights where the emotional stakes are just as high as the physical ones.
To Lord of the Rings’ credit, the Pelennor battle has its character moments, most notably for Eowyn, and it manages vast scope, too. Both forms of battle have their place, but in general, the stories that make the fight personal are the ones - to my mind - that really shine. In the last Harry Potter film, Neville gets his moment (fans would have been howling for blood if he hadn’t) but somehow it didn’t quite mean as much as it did in the book. The scene passed too briefly, and having Neville wake from being knocked on his ass by Voldemort, blinking and dazed, smacked of his role as goofy comic-relief.
In the book, when Neville chops off Nagini’s head, it is a culmination of his character growth over the series. He goes from being clumsy and silly, to being deeply human, ultimately proving himself a hero every bit Harry’s equal (and moreso, depending you who ask). After all, he could just have easily have been the ‘Chosen One’ if not for a simple twist of fate. In the movie, the weight behind the scene was missing, as was the weight behind Molly’s defeat of Bellatrix. Aberforth joining the battle meant less without knowing Dumbledore’s full back story. Hagrid ending up in the Death Eaters’ camp is just puzzling without the scene where he tries to protect the spiders. I missed Grawp, completely oblivious to the battle, but full of concern for Hagrid, the only person who was ever really kind to him. I missed the house elves finally getting a chance to fight for themselves, and Kreacher leading the charge in Regulus’ name. In short, I loved the movie, but I missed the characters.
If you happen to be writing epic fantasy fiction that involves a grand battle for the fate of the world, it’s something worth keeping in mind. All the spilled blood, all the impressive sword (or wand) play, all the thundering hooves, and cannons blazing don’t mean anything compared to the moment when everything stops, and your main character watches their best friend die. The battle is the background; the characters are what make the story tick.
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Originally published at A.C. Wise. You can comment here or there.