The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
The end of a decade. Oh, they started as kid's stories; mock if you will. But they were carefully mapped out from the beginning to grow out of that. It's like if you crammed seven big fat Dickens novels into one ongoing story. The depth of characters and richness of plotlines keeping bumping into each other. And now it all ends. Or, to put it more happily, pays off.
The Final Trailer, ere the big event. Watch and learn.
This is where the detritus is cleared. Sides are chosen, and Slytherin House are the final arbiters. They don't tell you that in the trailers, but it's true. They're the ones who decide "do we follow this guy til the end, or do we shut this thing down now?" Not all of them make the same choice, which is interesting to watch.
Two insights (I got a million of em) from this trailer. First, the scene where Headmaster Severus Snape departs the school in headlong flight is far more dramatic than in the book. Harry confronts him in front of everyone, charging him with the crime of killing Dumbledore. This is especially knife-twisting for those of us who love Severus (the most popular character by far), because he can't tell what he knows until it's too late. Knife-twisting is good. We know drama. Won't be a dry eye in the house.
And Slughorn is still there, diffidently upholding the honour of Slytherin House. He's a holdover beckoned out of retirement. His world was pre-Voldemort, when everybody just got along, and his evil was very low-grade and commonplace. Just favoring some above others and basking in their reflected glory. He seems completely at sea in this brave new world of deadly murderous conflict. Though quite competent at it, he doesn't like it one little bit.
This is it, when one sad, shallow echo of a man ("only I can live forever") causes the destruction of vast swathes of beloved characters ("I never wanted any of you to die for me"), and that glorious, shining unshakable edifice of Hogwarts School becomes a flaming, shattered ruin. Let no one mistake it as silly pop culture. This has been a decade in the making, and is high drama and great writing.
Avada kedavra.
- Comment (83)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Apr '11
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
I don't think "Av*d* k*d*vr*" is your standard complementary close. It doesn't mean "Live long and prosper".
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
It does signify closure, however. And not to worry, I never could get this wand to do Unforgivable Curses. Too whippy. I can do the Gilderoy Lockhart repertoire, but that's about it.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
I don't want the HP story to come to an end. I didn't want the books to be over when the last one showed up at my doorstep. At least with the movies being several years behind each book, the story didn't seem to end. But now that the last HP movie is making it's appearance, I feel the ending even more solidly. I don't like it one bit - the end of the series, not the movie. Haven't seen it, yet.
Oct '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Hasn't J.K. Rowling hinted that the Harry Potter saga might continue at some point? I recall reading that somewhere...
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
It's like creeping mortality. When it was the penultimate movie, you could kid yourself. Now it's really gonna be over. Hence the "Avada kedavra". Dumbledore knew a fitting exit line, but only when he had no other choice.
And this one looks like they did it up right, which is all one can ask of a funeral.
However, there is a rich field for a prequel series, based on the generation before. James, Lily, Severus, the Black kids, Tom, Slughorn as their teacher...
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
I'm not sure if she has, Mike, but as we crossed in the mail, she certainly could. She has enough notes to write bunches of big fat books til we're all dead.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Well, there is this.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
FeliciaB
Well, there is this. · Jun 20 at 4:16pm
And this.
Oct '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Sort of like a latter-day J.R.R. Tolkien.
Oct '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
FeliciaB
FeliciaB
Well, there is this. · Jun 20 at 4:16pm
And this. · Jun 20 at 4:16pm
Excellent! The plot thickens...
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
The video games have been disappointing. Tens of millions of people would love to explore a virtual Hogwarts and interact with the setting. That's what Warner Brothers provided with The Order of the Phoenix, but I keep wishing they would license the IP to Bethesda so we could see quality on par with Skyrim. Bioware or Rocksteady could also do it justice.
Aug '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Mike LaRoche
Sort of like a latter-day J.R.R. Tolkien.
In some ways. But her vision lacks Tolkien's grandiosity, I think. Not that this is all bad -- she has more of a common touch, which is pleasing in its own way.
For one thing, she tells better jokes. It is hard to have a grandiose vision and tell good jokes.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Mike LaRoche
Sort of like a latter-day J.R.R. Tolkien.
For one thing, she tells better jokes. It is hard to have a grandiose vision and tell good jokes. · Jun 20 at 5:18pm
Right, Midge? I found myself laughing out loud reading her books. The humor was so surprising and enjoyable. That's what I missed most in watching the movies. There was no way they could capture all of the humor that was in the books.
Aug '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
FeliciaB
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
For one thing, she tells better jokes. It is hard to have a grandiose vision and tell good jokes. · Jun 20 at 5:18pm
Right, Midge? I found myself laughing out loud reading her books. The humor was so surprising and enjoyable. That's what I missed most in watching the movies. There was no way they could capture all of the humor that was in the books. · Jun 20 at 5:34pm
I know what you mean. All the pomp and circumstance of the movies, with all that screen time taken up by sweeping vistas and special effects instead of the humorously quirky touches, is one of the reasons I much prefer the books.
The books are homier.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
For that reason I often think JK Rowling would make a good mystery novelist (no, really, I often think that, that's how lame my thoughts are). PG Wodehouse could also have turned his hand to a good mystery plot.
I guess it lacks the titanic black-n-white grandeur of Tolkien, but that's what makes it real. The stakes are very high, but you can identify with almost all of the characters, good and evil. They're people you know, caught up in something big. And it gets so far out of their control, beyond anything they could've intended.
Aug '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Yeah... I wouldn't call Tolkien's world black-and-white in the moral sense, but the moral conflicts were more... symbolic. And so less human-sized.
Sometimes, I think Tolkien's problem (to the extent he had a problem -- I mean, he was a great writer) was that the guy yearned too much. He was too busy yearning to have much time for life's little quirks.
Edited on Jun 21, 2011 at 6:56amMay '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Oh, I wouldn't say that. Longbottom leaf, after all, and the eleventy-first birthday. But his sources were epic poetry. Rowling's sources are costume dramas that get way out of hand.
Aug '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
True, but I still think he was a yearner.
When Tolkien defeats evil, it's not just individuals who die, but whole aspects of the world's splendor that pass away. The good that remains is more ordinary than what went before.
With Rowling, the good starts out pretty ordinary, and I don't get the same sense that defeating evil means things can never return to what they once were. Sure, individuals bear scars, but not the cosmic order itself, so to speak.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Certainly true that Tolkien is more abstract and allegorical (think that's due to his basis in mythology). I mean, it's not like any of the main characters in Harry Potter are anything but human. They Sort into different Houses, but that's like people have different astrological signs. They're still people, who you meet every day.
I got tons of essays on these subjects that would tax the patience of Ricocheteers (one, the tenuous social bounds that hem in wizards, just waiting to be broken, to disastrous effect. Another, the role of Slytherin historically, as opposed to when they got took over by Voldemort, which is kind of a corollary to the first topic, come to think).
But I think you're right. You can go back again. This scar will heal (oh, it'll be a scar, but). We see that vividly in the 17 years later epilogue.
May '10
Re: The Boy Who Lived, and Those Who Are to Die
Kennedy Smith is an unpublished author and complete dork who daily posts a Harry Potter vid under the hashtag #CountdowntoHogwartsgeddon on Twitter. He doesn't anticipate running out of material.