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diff --git a/literature/problem-of-wands.rst b/literature/problem-of-wands.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c34509 --- /dev/null +++ b/literature/problem-of-wands.rst @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +The Problem of Peter Pevensie and The Problem of Wands +###################################################### + +:date: 2019-10-17T19:00:08 +:category: literature +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment + +(my comment on the discussion under “`Summer Vacation`_” by +Forrest_of_Holly) + +I have rather complicated history with the Deathly Hallows. +I have bought the book six hours after it was published (no I +couldn’t bother myself to get up at midnight) while on the +work-related conference in Birmingham (I am a Czech from Prague +otherwise), read it over-night, so I flew home rather blurry, +and I thought that it is the best book of the series. Longer I +think about that (and longer I participate in the discussions +about it on the Internet), more I am discouraged. It seems to +me that Horcruxes, whole camping area, and the finale is very +much under-thought plotcruch and that the whole book is just +thinly covered one large plothole. Certainly, whole idea about +the transfer of ownership of wands seems to me more like *deus ex +machina* than anything else. + +Of course, Ms Rowling has to struggle with the bane of all +children/young-adult books, which I called The Problem of +Peter Pevensie. In the finale of the first book from The +Chronicles of Narnia series, we should believe that thirteen +year old (magically slightly grown older) boy defeated in the +fair battle the mightiest of all witches of the superhuman +size. It is barely possible to do it in the book, where the +suspense of unbelief is more simple, but when they tried to +make a film from the Narnia Chronicles, the result is a pure +disaster: thirteen year old boy fighting adult warrioress just +looks ridiculous, whatever film magic you apply (similarly, +it turned impossible to make a good film Aslan … whatever they +tried he looks still like an overgrown plush toy). + +The same problem applies to the Harry Potter series: we need +to believe that a seventeen year old boy (with substandard +training in the magical defence) beat adult superwizard who +has otherwise no adversary equal to him (and whom we seen +in the end of the sixth volume battle with Albus Dumbledore +in show of incomparable strength). The only way how to +get around it and not finish completely ridiculous is to +arrange some trick (or make it a group battle with Harry’s +allies on his side … e.g., the finale of “`Escape by +SingularOddities`_”). However, if you consider the subtle +net of intrigues and stratagems which all must to fall in +proper places for whole thing to work and Harry survive, +it is absolutely crazy to consider that as a reasonable war +plan. If this was the best Albus Dumbledore came up with, +then his strategical thinking was not very impressive. So, +that’s my opinion on the seventh book of the series. (and +don’t let me start on films: day after the last battle, +when still plenty of dangerous criminals are running through +the land, the main hero and the primary target of any possible +assassination is effectively wandless, because he didn’t +repair his original wand, and broke The Elder Wand). + +It is remarkable how Harry Potter in the whole series, even to +its end and to the defeat of Tom Riddle, IS **NOT** a superhero +á la Marvel films. In the last chapter (before Epilogue) of +DH, he is probably a way more battered and more experienced +but still distinctively seventeen-year old teenager, not even +a graduate of Hogwarts, who overcomes the evil mostly just by +using weird semi-legal tricks and technicalities. There is +no doubt in my mind that if he had to meet Voldemort in the +fair head-to-head battle á la the duel between Voldemort and +Dumbledore in the Department of Mysteries, he would end up +(as somebody called it) like Sackville-Baggins of Hardbottle +facing a barlog. + +Now technically (using only arguments from the inside of HP +universe) to the problem of wands. Obviously, any disarming +cannot lead to the change of ownership of a wand, that would be +crazy. “`The Wheel Is Come Full Circle by White_Squirrel`_\ ” +came with the limit, that there must be an intent of the winner +of the duel to use the acquired wand as his own, not only to +disarm your opponent. That actually works in the Deathly Hallows +situation (more or less, it doesn’t explain very well how +Draco Malfoy became owner of the Wand of Destiny in the first +place, but both Harry in the Malfoy Manor, Dumbledore in the +duel with Grindewald, and Grindewald stealing the wand from +Grigorovitch work), and it can limit the potential misuse of +the rule in the normal magical life. Another alternative is to +limit this ownership exchange theory just to the Elder Wand +(or any possible special super-wands) and all other wands +just follow the Ollivander’s mantra of “wand choosing +her master” and make wand transfer effectively impossible +(meaning, every wand works somehow for every wizard/witch, but +the ones which haven’t chosen their owner, work very poorly; +but that doesn’t explain how Hermione battled successfully +against Bellatrix Lestrange using her own wand, which she did +not acquire in the duel with her). It is just a mess. + +.. _`Summer Vacation`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/18853210 + +.. _`Escape by SingularOddities`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11916243 + +.. _`The Wheel Is Come Full Circle by White_Squirrel`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/14072127 |