On the subject of wizards and death
Harry Potter has to die.
It is a guarantee that J.K. Rowling will bloody her pen, since she has shown no hesitation in doing so in the last two books, and because she has stated:
"One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die...A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil...They go for the main characters...well, I do".
So with this in mind, why does Harry need to die? Well somewhere out there on the vast seas of the world wide web, Rowling has been saying that this is the final Harry book and I believe she said she would never want anyone else to do any other story with her character. Killing the main character is usually a pretty good solution. But you can’t make it a Sherlock Holmes death where everyone is going to want and resurrect you because the death felt cheap. You need a death where resurrecting the character would be considered sacrilege. If you make it a tragic death in the realm of Hamlet (with a lot less crazy of course) or a noble Christ -like sacrifice (without the whole part about being God and resurrecting but keeping all the improtance of the death), then you will get the most impact.
Let’s look at some previous deaths. As cool as Sirius was and as big of an impact has he was an Harry, he wasn’t really in the books all that much. The same thing could even be said of old Dumbles, who really didn’t get a lot of time in the books until number 6. And Cedric might have just worn a red shirt for the entire time he was in the book. I mean you heard about the guy a little bit, but really he was just in place so that someone other then Harry could die. And out of all of them Cedric may be the most dead, since we never got to see a body with Sirius, and Dumble probably has a good chance of coming back as a ghost. Heck they are all over the place in Hogwarts, so why not? At the very least he will come back as a really helpful painting or something.
So why does it have to be Potter? Well first off these books seem to be set up as a bit of a tragedy. I really don’t feel like citing any reasons, so just go with me on this one. And for the full impact of a tragedy you are going to have to kill some characters that have had significant development. For many readers they have grown up alongside the classmates of Potter, so if you want to have the most impact with your tragedy, these classmates are a good place to start. The big three Harry, Hermione, and Ron are usually the best targets. We can also add Ginny to this list because of the emotional impact she would have for Harry. Putting any one of the others in danger is enough to bring Harry into a loosing conflict, and killing one of them would really send him into a situation where he might not have a plan. Or maybe a plan that he had previously reject, like sacrificing himself.
The next part is the set up. Why has it been so hard to kill Harry in previous stories? This kid has preternatural skills at staying alive. He is physically fit, strong physically and magically, has a pretty keen mind and has shown a level head in battle even at an early age. So you really have to throw a metric ton of whoop ass against him, which usually manifests itself in Voldermort. While there are a bunch of adult wizards that might have given Harry some trouble in the past, I imagine he has probably been engaged in some combat training montage since we last saw him. But Ol’ slit nose has always had the upper hand and Harry has really only escaped through a lot of dues ex occurrences. Two wands happening to join and the spirit’s of Harry’s dead parents materialize to save him? Yeah I feel that kind of luck is about to run out. Especially since Dumbles always said that Harry had certain magic protecting him at home until he reached the age of 17, and I kind of feel that occasionally extended to areas outside the home as well. Call it a permanent luck charm if you will that is about to expire. Plus the big V has Harry’s blood so the whole love protection thing doesn’t work, but we already knew that since book four.
Now we have Harry at his most human and with his greatest chance to die. He has a dead friend, and he hatches a plot to sacrifice himself to kill or maybe even just to weaken Voldermort. Hell if Ginny is the one who is killed, and his parents are dead, Harry will probably be welcoming death about now. Plus there is always a chance that he is a Horcrux, or has one in him, or something to that effect. So if Harry dies, can evil win in a Rowling book? As much as things have been set up as a tragedy, I don’t think Voldermort will prevail. Though the books range from pagan to indifferent about religion, there is a prevalent Judeo-Christian theme of good triumphing over evil. Especially when times seem to be at their darkest and evil is on the verge of wining.
As for the rest of the details surrounding these events, I think they are a bit more ambiguous. Snape is probably good, but really I never cared enough about him to thoroughly analyze the character. A person who interests me more is Neville Longbottom. I think this person actually had a pretty good chance of finding his courage and either delivering the death blow after Harry weakens him, or something else that will be instrumental in saving the day. But this is all really just random speculation in the end. Maybe it is Neville that makes the noble sacrifice (little bit o tragedy). Perhaps both Ron and Hermione day and only admit their love to each other on their death beds (yup that would be tragic) Maybe they all die and only Snape lives (wow now that would be really tragic)! Out of any of these options, I think Harry needs to die for this story to really achieve a level of greatness.
It is a guarantee that J.K. Rowling will bloody her pen, since she has shown no hesitation in doing so in the last two books, and because she has stated:
"One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die...A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil...They go for the main characters...well, I do".
So with this in mind, why does Harry need to die? Well somewhere out there on the vast seas of the world wide web, Rowling has been saying that this is the final Harry book and I believe she said she would never want anyone else to do any other story with her character. Killing the main character is usually a pretty good solution. But you can’t make it a Sherlock Holmes death where everyone is going to want and resurrect you because the death felt cheap. You need a death where resurrecting the character would be considered sacrilege. If you make it a tragic death in the realm of Hamlet (with a lot less crazy of course) or a noble Christ -like sacrifice (without the whole part about being God and resurrecting but keeping all the improtance of the death), then you will get the most impact.
Let’s look at some previous deaths. As cool as Sirius was and as big of an impact has he was an Harry, he wasn’t really in the books all that much. The same thing could even be said of old Dumbles, who really didn’t get a lot of time in the books until number 6. And Cedric might have just worn a red shirt for the entire time he was in the book. I mean you heard about the guy a little bit, but really he was just in place so that someone other then Harry could die. And out of all of them Cedric may be the most dead, since we never got to see a body with Sirius, and Dumble probably has a good chance of coming back as a ghost. Heck they are all over the place in Hogwarts, so why not? At the very least he will come back as a really helpful painting or something.
So why does it have to be Potter? Well first off these books seem to be set up as a bit of a tragedy. I really don’t feel like citing any reasons, so just go with me on this one. And for the full impact of a tragedy you are going to have to kill some characters that have had significant development. For many readers they have grown up alongside the classmates of Potter, so if you want to have the most impact with your tragedy, these classmates are a good place to start. The big three Harry, Hermione, and Ron are usually the best targets. We can also add Ginny to this list because of the emotional impact she would have for Harry. Putting any one of the others in danger is enough to bring Harry into a loosing conflict, and killing one of them would really send him into a situation where he might not have a plan. Or maybe a plan that he had previously reject, like sacrificing himself.
The next part is the set up. Why has it been so hard to kill Harry in previous stories? This kid has preternatural skills at staying alive. He is physically fit, strong physically and magically, has a pretty keen mind and has shown a level head in battle even at an early age. So you really have to throw a metric ton of whoop ass against him, which usually manifests itself in Voldermort. While there are a bunch of adult wizards that might have given Harry some trouble in the past, I imagine he has probably been engaged in some combat training montage since we last saw him. But Ol’ slit nose has always had the upper hand and Harry has really only escaped through a lot of dues ex occurrences. Two wands happening to join and the spirit’s of Harry’s dead parents materialize to save him? Yeah I feel that kind of luck is about to run out. Especially since Dumbles always said that Harry had certain magic protecting him at home until he reached the age of 17, and I kind of feel that occasionally extended to areas outside the home as well. Call it a permanent luck charm if you will that is about to expire. Plus the big V has Harry’s blood so the whole love protection thing doesn’t work, but we already knew that since book four.
Now we have Harry at his most human and with his greatest chance to die. He has a dead friend, and he hatches a plot to sacrifice himself to kill or maybe even just to weaken Voldermort. Hell if Ginny is the one who is killed, and his parents are dead, Harry will probably be welcoming death about now. Plus there is always a chance that he is a Horcrux, or has one in him, or something to that effect. So if Harry dies, can evil win in a Rowling book? As much as things have been set up as a tragedy, I don’t think Voldermort will prevail. Though the books range from pagan to indifferent about religion, there is a prevalent Judeo-Christian theme of good triumphing over evil. Especially when times seem to be at their darkest and evil is on the verge of wining.
As for the rest of the details surrounding these events, I think they are a bit more ambiguous. Snape is probably good, but really I never cared enough about him to thoroughly analyze the character. A person who interests me more is Neville Longbottom. I think this person actually had a pretty good chance of finding his courage and either delivering the death blow after Harry weakens him, or something else that will be instrumental in saving the day. But this is all really just random speculation in the end. Maybe it is Neville that makes the noble sacrifice (little bit o tragedy). Perhaps both Ron and Hermione day and only admit their love to each other on their death beds (yup that would be tragic) Maybe they all die and only Snape lives (wow now that would be really tragic)! Out of any of these options, I think Harry needs to die for this story to really achieve a level of greatness.