Indian Readers discussion
Literary Characters
>
Harry Potter - could it be a bit different/better?
date
newest »
newest »
And to those who read Lord of Flies, Voldemort's childhood history reminds me of the evil kid in that book. Which kinds of questions us: isn't evil just within us???
Aditya: Thanks for the stark analysis! Whattay group! Something that started as a small point for discussion has agitated Aditya enough to create a thread and then put it there!
Hey, not agitated, i loved the question and hence the answer! Never thought of all this analysis until u questioned!
Adi, good that you started this post. How was it that this thread wasn't there earlier???And I can't believe some actually made that video (the link you posted). I'm hurt.
Deviating away from how the books could have been, posting a question here.Which spell from the HP series do you think could be of real use to you? It has to be 'Accio' for me.
Parikhit wrote: "Deviating away from how the books could have been, posting a question here.Which spell from the HP series do you think could be of real use to you? It has to be 'Accio' for me."
it would be accio for many.. i would love to use Wingardium Leviosa too. i can think of so many objects i would love to see float in air!!!
Vinoth wrote: "Parikhit wrote: "Deviating away from how the books could have been, posting a question here.Which spell from the HP series do you think could be of real use to you? It has to be 'Accio' for me."
..."
I would like to use the memory charm too :D
Parikhit wrote: "Vinoth wrote: "Parikhit wrote: "Deviating away from how the books could have been, posting a question here.Which spell from the HP series do you think could be of real use to you? It has to be ..."
it would come handy. yeah :D
Also stupefy and yes sectumsempra ;)
Parikhit wrote: "Also stupefy and yes sectumsempra ;)"Now u r being too evil for ur name, but i'd like to expelliarmus (that's my fav btw) u from this thread - u r sabotaging a serious discussion
R. Sun Moon wrote: "Parikhit wrote: "Also stupefy and yes sectumsempra ;)"Now u r being too evil for ur name, but i'd like to expelliarmus (that's my fav btw) u from this thread - u r sabotaging a serious discussion "
Okie mod. Period.
wasnt Harry Potter just perfect. it was perfect enough 4 me. Grow up
Well I read it all very carefully.... Why did harry did not became like voldy... Well most of the thing I wanted to say already told by aditya. Just one more thing I would like to add is , the difference between their birth. Harry potter was born out of love where as in voldy case her mother used magic on his father and due to that they were never happy and voldy suffered. Their was no love from the beginning and when he was around other kids all of them hated him, said he is mad and what not , he was aware of his power and because of that he became a object of fear and all other kids left him alone , so at early childhood he came to know power serves well and he choose Hogwarts not to become a wizard but to shape his power and become more powerful...where as harry went to Hogwarts just to escape his family and he found great friends... Harry from the childhood never knew about his power or its effect not Untill he turned 13 .
As far as snape death is concerned, I think it was justified... He was burdened with the blood on his hand , that of professor Dumbledore's. And a burden doesn't let you live . And moreover, he was too proud to tell harry directly all he wanted to say that is why before dieing he gives his memory.
And I don't think any different end would justify the series.Just one thing that I regretted in the series was the death of Sirius Black. Other than that everything was fine...
About time travel and saving harry potter's parents life.. I think whenever the time travel was used it was used for small things and things that was not proven.
If used in saving James and Lilly it would change many things ....
For instance... Harry would not be the seventh horcerux.
Voldy could have easily killed him. Black would not be in Azkaban and many other things that gave a shape to the series. So using time travel would do more damage than good..and moreover harry was harry potter because of that one incident...if not than he would just be another wiz kid attending Hogwarts..... Everything would change because everything was connected with James and Lilly's death.
he wasn't proud.he was bound.he served so valiantly and never thought of anything but harry's safety.
being bad to him wasn't really a choice.it was an absolute necessity.
the only time the true 'snape' is seen other than that in the memories is when he says, "always"
thats not pride!
that's care and craving for lost love!
that's helplessness!
as for voldemort, dirt and not-so-pleasant behavior in the childhood was what harry faced as well.
but that dint change his soul.
he even had to hear things about his parents,be undernourished,be harassed by dudley and be ignored by the only living relatives he had.
the key was he din't know he's got power to change anything then.
but am quite sure even if he knew JKR wouldn't make him as inhuman as the kid voldemort.
one death that made me feel worse (way more than even if harry had died!=p) was sirius's.it was so sudden and so peaceful.'although i feel it could have been done in a way more elaborate and valiant way.
i wish he was sent away(if at all) in his style and bravery!
with a royal and gallant touch.
the smile fading slowly is what moves me the most.
i absolutely loved his character.
aww!
he wasn't proud.he was bound.he served so valiantly and never thought of anything but harry's safety.
well that did not justify his behavior towards harry potter from the beginning .. he saved harry potter because again he was burdened with death of James and Lilly ... He was not directly connected but he was a death eater at that time so in repentance for his love of Lilly he took vow to save protect harry... But he never cared about him...
as for voldemort, dirt and not-so-pleasant behavior in the childhood was what harry faced as well.
but that dint change his soul.
no voldy had a far worse upbringing and harry had a memory of his two years of life with his parents that was love but voldy only got hatred.. nothing more nothing less.
Harry did not get hatred but resentment from Dudley and his family .
The upbringing harry had made him affectionate towards others.
The kid voldemort saw only hatred ...and as I mentioned earlier he got the taste of power .
Two different people act differently in same situation.
And about JKR making voldy pure inhuman... It was a way to show good and evil... Untill we see evil , good is not appreciated.
Oela wrote: "one death that made me feel worse (way more than even if harry had died!=p) was sirius's.it was so sudden and so peaceful.'although i feel it could have been done in a way more elaborate and valia..."
Yes... I wanted black to be alive ... He was a very knightly character ... I did not expected his sudden death... I infact did not like it.....
~^ω^~{Augusti}~^ω^~ wrote: " he wasn't proud.he was bound.he served so valiantly and never thought of anything but harry's safety.
well that did not justify his behavior towards harry potter from the beginning .. he saved ..."
harry just had about 1 year with his mum & dad and he doesnt really remember anything from those days.
no one does,neither did he.
i think its somewhere in the books its mentioned that he doesnt remember anything abt his parents.not the attack as well.
i dont remember voldemort being hated as a kid.kids in the orphanage weren't really hated.they were kept clumsily just like harry was.almost!!
but they were given some attention while harry was ignored.
i would have quoted dumbledore here when he said outright ignorance does much harm than just hatred,but i dont remember it word to word so i'll pass it.=)
voldemort was born in the orphanage so whether or not his parents loved each other and whether or not his father ever wanted him was not known to him,until he reached hogwarts and made an effort to figure things out himself.
harry just had about 1 year with his mum & dad and he doesnt really remember anything from those days.no one does,neither did he.
i think its somewhere in the books its mentioned that he doesnt remember anything abt his parents.not the attack as well.
yeah sorry it was 1 yr not 2 , my mistake , but later in HP 3 , harry mentions to professor lupin while conjuring the Patronus that he does not know whether it is real memory or just a dream but he remember his parents smiling.( or something close to it)
the difference here is harry knew his parents died and not abondend him and he lived in his home how terrible that may seem but it matters where as riddle , he knew his mother died after giving birth to him but his dad never showed up. doesnt it messes with a child , why doesnt his dad ever come for him.
“Was my father a wizard? He was called Tom Riddle too, they’ve told me.”
“My mother can’t have been magic, or she wouldn’t have died,” said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore. “It must’ve been him.
.......................................................
i dont remember voldemort being hated as a kid.kids in the orphanage weren't really hated.they were kept clumsily just like harry was.almost!!
She squinted at him as though deciding whether or not to trust him. Apparently she decided she could, because she said in a sudden rush,“He scares the other children.”
---- “Billy Stubbs’s rabbit… well, Tom said he didn’t do it and I don’t see how he could have done, but even so, it didn’t hang itself from the rafters, did it?”
---- “But I’m jiggered if I know how he got up there to do it. All I know is he and Billy had argued the day before. And then”— Mrs. Cole took another swig of gin, slopping a little over her chin this time — “on the summer outing — we take them out, you know, once a year, to the countryside or to the seaside — well, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards, and all we ever got out of them was that they’d gone into a cave with Tom Riddle.
He swore they’d just gone exploring, but something happened in there, I’m sure of it. And, well, there have been a lot of things, funny things…”
(she ) here is referred to Mrs. Coles, the caretaker of orphanage.
but they were given some attention while harry was ignored.i would have quoted dumbledore here when he said outright ignorance does much harm than just hatred,but i dont remember it word to word so i'll pass it.=)
sometimes ignoring is better... he was ignored, which made him keen on people around him, which made him wanting a life full of friends.
First of all, when it comes to The Harry Potter series , I doubt there is anything called pure evil.(Okay, maybe Umbridge is an exception :P )Voldemort, or let's call him Tom Marvolo Riddle for argument's sake was dealt with a sh*t hand of cards at the beginning of is life.He was conceived under the effect of a love potion and hence did not have the capacity to love. At the beginning of his life, he was thwarted to a dirty filthy orphanage. His mother, unlike Harry's mother, had a choice to live (she was a witch, she did not need to die a muggle's death.At least she could have lived for her son.)
His father abandoned his mother and him and never looked back!
What do you expect a child so broken and damaged to become??
Secondly, Harry is supposed to be all good...I mean c'mon, he's the 'protagonist for typing out loud (or maybe fast!!)
Knowing that it was dark arts that killed his parents, do you really think he would have been into it??
There is this particular quote in Half Blood Prince, where Hermione says that the way Snape had explained Dark Arts was similar to Harry's speech in OoTP...so obviously he was interested in the subject...but he 'chose' not to be involved!! and to quote Dumbledore, "It is our choices far more than our abilities that makes us who we are"
Harry's whole character is based on the single virtue of desire to stay good.
He rejects friendship from wealthier people to stay loyal to old ones.Even when ridiculed, feared, being wrongly considered evil and having all kind of reasons, including at times power, to turn evil - he stays good. He forced talking hat not to put him in Slytherians because people who go there become evil. When he had doubts that he may actually cause harm to people (fifth book), he wants to run away from all of them. In all seven books, he could never use forbidden curses (he tried once but failed for he didn't mean it.)
When Rowling sketches back story for V. - she uses somewhat same colors as Harry, but while Harry is ready to deny greatness if that is what is required to not be evil, Voldemort is power hungry. Voldemort is the bully while Harry starts as bullied one but later learns to take his stand
If you compare Harry's early life to that of Voldemort, you won't find much difference. The thing that creates a difference between is that Harry is constantly trying to be a good person. "It is choices that make you" - Remember! We may sympathize with Voldemort that he had reasons to be evil, but same was true for Harry - and the fact remained, that in the end you always have a choice. The same thing goes for Snape who remained true to his love even in the worst of times.
Even Voldemort wasn't pure evil. He was power hungry and all his actions were towards goal of gaining power (Rowling created him in image of Hitler). This is what hunger of power does to people. Rowling gets even Dumbledore to make mistakes when later is hungry for greater good. The message is really clear.
He rejects friendship from wealthier people to stay loyal to old ones.Even when ridiculed, feared, being wrongly considered evil and having all kind of reasons, including at times power, to turn evil - he stays good. He forced talking hat not to put him in Slytherians because people who go there become evil. When he had doubts that he may actually cause harm to people (fifth book), he wants to run away from all of them. In all seven books, he could never use forbidden curses (he tried once but failed for he didn't mean it.)
When Rowling sketches back story for V. - she uses somewhat same colors as Harry, but while Harry is ready to deny greatness if that is what is required to not be evil, Voldemort is power hungry. Voldemort is the bully while Harry starts as bullied one but later learns to take his stand
If you compare Harry's early life to that of Voldemort, you won't find much difference. The thing that creates a difference between is that Harry is constantly trying to be a good person. "It is choices that make you" - Remember! We may sympathize with Voldemort that he had reasons to be evil, but same was true for Harry - and the fact remained, that in the end you always have a choice. The same thing goes for Snape who remained true to his love even in the worst of times.
Even Voldemort wasn't pure evil. He was power hungry and all his actions were towards goal of gaining power (Rowling created him in image of Hitler). This is what hunger of power does to people. Rowling gets even Dumbledore to make mistakes when later is hungry for greater good. The message is really clear.
I am sorry...but the title of the group is absurd...Harry Potter couldn't be better or different! You can't find faults in a "Masterpiece"....Hee Hee All said in good humour!!
Time and again when I visit this thread after rereading Harry Potter the nth time, I can only say that it is perfect. I don't think so it could have been better. Although I wish Luna Lovegood's character was explored further. She is too interesting to be true, come to think about it. And why didn't Neville marry Luna when he was supposed to be 'irrevocably and irreversibly' in love with her!
1) Harry Potter is fighting and chasing Voldy for 7 years, how the heck can a kid like him still manage to stay sane and avoid turning into another Dark Wizard just like Voldy?
My answer:
1) Voldy has become VOLDY over a period of time, not just overnight. He was a loner, who, when he discovered his own magical powers had no one to explain right from wrong. Harry also had a similar lonely childhood but the environment in which he gre up was a lot more homely than that of Voldy's. Yes, u read it right, Harry's childhood when compared to Voldy's turns out to be much more better and instrumental in the way his character develops over the years. Voldy had no chance to see 'love. Harry on the other hand was a constant spectator of the love shown by Petunia and Vernon over Dudley and the way they pamper him. Consequently though Harry and Voldy had been bullied more or less equally during their childhood the way turned out to be is quite different.
2) Talking of revenge, Harry never had a burning desire for revenge, Voldy just disgusted him due to his cruelty, and harry's yearning for his parents is much greater than his yearning for revenge. Only when he learns of the prophecy that he actually starts thinking of death - his or Voldy's
3) The hunt for horcruxes is a responsibility thrust on Harry by Dumbledore. And Harry burdened himself even more with the job as he felt responsible for the deaths of Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad Eye etc who died protecting Harry, just like his parents died. Harry's quest to destroy Horcruxes is more to prevent others like Ron, Hermione, Ginny from being killed.
4) Harry's approach to kill Voldy: He never pursued dark arts himself and he knows he is not so bright a wizard, all he has got is a huge heart and a pea sized brain probably slightly larger than Ron's. For him going after the horcruxes looked like a better proposition than learning dark arts and uttering the unforgivable curses.
compared to Batman: I'd say Bruce Wayne has got more chance to turn evil than Harry Potter on any given day, one - because he now has no one to lose and no one to care for, save Alfred.
Harry also might have had a good chance if Voldy had attacked Weasely family, Hermione etc over and above Dumbledore and Sirius. Love, as was explained in the movie, is basically his strength as well as weakness. Who knows what might have happened had Voldy attacked and killed all of Harry's loved ones forcing him on the only path laid out which eventually shud lead to a duel much bigger than Grindelwald vs Dumbledore!
*****************************************************
Here is a link posted by Teja suggesting alternate endings for Harry Potter: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/08/19/...
Some of them do look valid, like the thing about Snape shudn't have died. But personally i think Dumbledore's death has affected Snape as severly as it did Harry, if not more. And it looked more like his subconscious' wish to die. No complaints.
Using Time turner more liberally - that looks like a valid point too. Here is an excerpt from Rowling's interview:
"Ellie: Why didn't Harry use the time-turner to save his parents?
JKR: Oh, that's a very good question, that. But it would take us into "Terminator" territory, if you've ever seen the "Terminator" films... but never mind. Well, the time-turner was a very difficult invention for me, because it created as many problems as it solved. And anyone who's read Order of the Phoenix may have noticed that during the climactic scene in which they chase through the Ministry of Magic, they shatter all the time-turners, thereby preventing them using those in the future."
The other points made in that link looks like were made by ppl who have only seen the movies, but never read the books. So no wonder they sound so ignorant!
And please no cross-over from LOTR and Harry Potter, would look like a badly done mutant job :(