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OMG, I'm writing about Deathly Hallows. Because I was having this conversation about something in it that really bugged me. So this is about something I didn't like in DH. If you are bummed out by the negative, don't irritate yourself by clicking this
By the end of the series, we have two different and contradictory explanations for how Wands work with Wizards--and now I think about it, those explanations reflect an ambivalence already present in the series.
The very first book establishes the substitution of magic for school. Harry will go to school just like the reader, but he learns magic instead of other subjects. Which is fine, but sometimes leads to a little canonical confusion between "smart" and "magically adept." When Hermione does Transfiguration on the first day of class we understand she's a good student even though wand movement is more physical than mental. In OotP, iirc, there's a conversation with a Ravenclaw in the DA where he asks why Hermione isn't in that house when she's doing NEWT level magic--again, we've never seen that being a primarily mental process. Although there are some vague references to theory or esoteric knowledge that Dumbledore has but can't explain, and things to memorize, Harry never really encounters anything beyond magic as a physical skill.
This question of brains vs. skills carries over to Wands. Which one eventually dominates? In the end, are they tools of learning or tools of battle? The answer: tools of battle. Are they like a violin or like a sword? They are like a sword.
We got the first explanation of how wands work back in PS/SS. That's where Harry's wand chooses him and we hear its particulars: It is made of holly and has a phoenix feather core. The affinity for Harry comes from the qualities of the wood and core, and the folklore and fictional connections with each one. We hear James' wand was good at Transfiguration, a clue to his being an Animagus. Lily's was good at Charms--her protection of Harry was presumably a Charm. It was another one of those built-in personality tests. Who can say if holly is a nicer wood than maple? Nobody, really, it's personal taste. Everyone is different but everyone has a wand meant for them.
Unfortunately, this goes out the window in DH when Ollivander introducers the startling idea that in fact a wand becomes "yours" if you win it from someone else in a duel, either by yanking it from them or blasting it away from them or just beating them up and taking it. Iow, whatever hints we've gotten about love or learning, it's about power. Wands instinctively "bend their wills" to the person who's the most dominating physically and magically. If someone has beaten you, your wand--that thing that's been like an extention of yourself--is no longer yours!
These two ideas are contradictory and can't both be true, and in DH it's made clear that it's the domination idea that is the true one, otherwise the story wouldn't work. (So much for that Muggleborn's tearful, "But it's my wand! It chose me!" line--it's chosen Umbridge now, lady, if she took it from you.) It's a shame, actually, because with just a little tweaking JKR could have saved the original idea. She could have said that only the *Elder Wand* (the one already uniquely created to dominate others) bent to the will of he who won it. It could have been done with little changes to the story, saved the former ideas about Wands, and avoided questions like why Ollivander thinks he knows who any Wand belongs to after it leaves his store.
But that's not what happened. Instead we have all these careful scenes showing us how Harry can't work with the blackthorn wand (does he even struggle a little with Hermione's freely lent one?), but can work with Draco's because he yanked it out of his hand and thereby won it by physically besting him. Wood and core ultimately mean nothing at all. If they did, then in the scene where Harry shows Ollivander the Wands he's brought from Malfoy Manor Ollivander wouldn't have been going on about how the wand no longer belongs to Draco because Harry won it.
If we stayed with the original idea he should have been talking about wood and core and things like that--Harry's wand was made of holly; Draco's is hawthorn; Harry's has a phoenix feather core; Draco's has a unicorn hair core. How, if as we were originally told, the wood and core are in sympathy with the Wizard, could Harry be expected to use this one easily? Well, he could if Ollivander had just said something like "This wand will never be right for you, but it could be a lot worse. The Wand might feel more cold or detached than your regular one because of the unicorn tail, and you'll probably have to cast spells with more force than your used to in order to compensate for the hawthorn wood. To someone with an affinity for holly, that wood may feel contradictory and less focused. It will feel "lighter" in general, so be careful you don't overdo it."
Or whatever. Had that happened Harry probably still could have used it to win the battle. Draco would still be the Master of the Elder wand because *that* Wand only recognizes that kind of brute force, and Harry would still be the one who defeated him no matter what Wand he was using. He just would have beat Voldemort while struggling to work with a wand that would never truly be his or feel as good as his own for him. (Of course, I can't help but already worry that's getting into dangerous territory, as if Harry is somehow learning to work with Malfoy rather than more satisfyingly dominating him and having his wand like him better.)
It would have been preferable to me personally, though. I far prefer the original idea that Wands are tools of learning that reflect each person's personal experience and the wisdom they gained through it to the one where Wands are phallic weapons turned on by the best fighter, who then just gets to choose which one to use based on whether they prefer kicking ass with a .44 Magnum or a .38 special. Certainly I think this is a hell of a thing to toss in as if it's something only somebody well-versed in Wand-lore would know, when this is the kind of information Wizards would consider hugely important and have noticed immediately.
By the end of the series, we have two different and contradictory explanations for how Wands work with Wizards--and now I think about it, those explanations reflect an ambivalence already present in the series.
The very first book establishes the substitution of magic for school. Harry will go to school just like the reader, but he learns magic instead of other subjects. Which is fine, but sometimes leads to a little canonical confusion between "smart" and "magically adept." When Hermione does Transfiguration on the first day of class we understand she's a good student even though wand movement is more physical than mental. In OotP, iirc, there's a conversation with a Ravenclaw in the DA where he asks why Hermione isn't in that house when she's doing NEWT level magic--again, we've never seen that being a primarily mental process. Although there are some vague references to theory or esoteric knowledge that Dumbledore has but can't explain, and things to memorize, Harry never really encounters anything beyond magic as a physical skill.
This question of brains vs. skills carries over to Wands. Which one eventually dominates? In the end, are they tools of learning or tools of battle? The answer: tools of battle. Are they like a violin or like a sword? They are like a sword.
We got the first explanation of how wands work back in PS/SS. That's where Harry's wand chooses him and we hear its particulars: It is made of holly and has a phoenix feather core. The affinity for Harry comes from the qualities of the wood and core, and the folklore and fictional connections with each one. We hear James' wand was good at Transfiguration, a clue to his being an Animagus. Lily's was good at Charms--her protection of Harry was presumably a Charm. It was another one of those built-in personality tests. Who can say if holly is a nicer wood than maple? Nobody, really, it's personal taste. Everyone is different but everyone has a wand meant for them.
Unfortunately, this goes out the window in DH when Ollivander introducers the startling idea that in fact a wand becomes "yours" if you win it from someone else in a duel, either by yanking it from them or blasting it away from them or just beating them up and taking it. Iow, whatever hints we've gotten about love or learning, it's about power. Wands instinctively "bend their wills" to the person who's the most dominating physically and magically. If someone has beaten you, your wand--that thing that's been like an extention of yourself--is no longer yours!
These two ideas are contradictory and can't both be true, and in DH it's made clear that it's the domination idea that is the true one, otherwise the story wouldn't work. (So much for that Muggleborn's tearful, "But it's my wand! It chose me!" line--it's chosen Umbridge now, lady, if she took it from you.) It's a shame, actually, because with just a little tweaking JKR could have saved the original idea. She could have said that only the *Elder Wand* (the one already uniquely created to dominate others) bent to the will of he who won it. It could have been done with little changes to the story, saved the former ideas about Wands, and avoided questions like why Ollivander thinks he knows who any Wand belongs to after it leaves his store.
But that's not what happened. Instead we have all these careful scenes showing us how Harry can't work with the blackthorn wand (does he even struggle a little with Hermione's freely lent one?), but can work with Draco's because he yanked it out of his hand and thereby won it by physically besting him. Wood and core ultimately mean nothing at all. If they did, then in the scene where Harry shows Ollivander the Wands he's brought from Malfoy Manor Ollivander wouldn't have been going on about how the wand no longer belongs to Draco because Harry won it.
If we stayed with the original idea he should have been talking about wood and core and things like that--Harry's wand was made of holly; Draco's is hawthorn; Harry's has a phoenix feather core; Draco's has a unicorn hair core. How, if as we were originally told, the wood and core are in sympathy with the Wizard, could Harry be expected to use this one easily? Well, he could if Ollivander had just said something like "This wand will never be right for you, but it could be a lot worse. The Wand might feel more cold or detached than your regular one because of the unicorn tail, and you'll probably have to cast spells with more force than your used to in order to compensate for the hawthorn wood. To someone with an affinity for holly, that wood may feel contradictory and less focused. It will feel "lighter" in general, so be careful you don't overdo it."
Or whatever. Had that happened Harry probably still could have used it to win the battle. Draco would still be the Master of the Elder wand because *that* Wand only recognizes that kind of brute force, and Harry would still be the one who defeated him no matter what Wand he was using. He just would have beat Voldemort while struggling to work with a wand that would never truly be his or feel as good as his own for him. (Of course, I can't help but already worry that's getting into dangerous territory, as if Harry is somehow learning to work with Malfoy rather than more satisfyingly dominating him and having his wand like him better.)
It would have been preferable to me personally, though. I far prefer the original idea that Wands are tools of learning that reflect each person's personal experience and the wisdom they gained through it to the one where Wands are phallic weapons turned on by the best fighter, who then just gets to choose which one to use based on whether they prefer kicking ass with a .44 Magnum or a .38 special. Certainly I think this is a hell of a thing to toss in as if it's something only somebody well-versed in Wand-lore would know, when this is the kind of information Wizards would consider hugely important and have noticed immediately.
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It's funny because I was just going through my old posts, out of nostalgia, and was reading our reactions to DH. Not to mention my impassioned defense of JKR before DH, in which I argued that one of the brilliant things about magic in her world was that it wasn't about random and arcane rules, but rather intuition and emotion -- an effort of will (i.e., learning Accio or Occlumency) rather than strategy. Oh, how wrong I was!
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(*sniggers, because I am five.*)
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The other thing that always bothered me about the explanation of wands in DH is that it basically means that scene in the Astromony Tower, that so many of us thought actually meant something about Draco's characterization, was really about little more than setup for Harry to get Teh Most Powerful Wand EVAH and have it bend to his will in a crucial moment.
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And as for an effort of will... why was Harry able to use the Imperius curse, without any effort at all, on two targets simultaneously the first time he tried it, with such skill that nobody suspected that anything was wrong? Cruciatus I can understand, although his motivation was a bit weak to provoke that result... but Imperius can't be THAT easy to pull off, especially with a stolen wand! Oh, JK... how much you could have done with a bit more planning early on.
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AK really is the most obvious spell to use. Well, except for that dancing leg spell used on Neville. Because what terrorist wouldn't think of using *that* in a fight? *rolls eyes* It's just a good thing they never learned the secret of the bat bogey!
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Harry Potter villains are like James Bond villains... they never kill the hero when they have the chance, but make sure to explain their plans carefully, set up an elaborate trap, and only shoot to kill when they're sure to miss. This is why, if I ever get around to writing more of that story I started way back about Harry being sorted into Slytherin, there will be a very good explanation for why people aren't trying to kill him, because if they try, they'll probably succeed.
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I'm really upset about the Imperius too, because that was *the* great suspense I had as I waited for DH. We learned of Unforgivables in GoF, witnessed Harry not being capable of one in OotP, and in HBP at the final climactic scene, he *still* can't pull it off against Snape, when he's about to leave Hogwarts and embark on his final battle-journey. But he has to grow up and kill the evil Voldemort, right? That's his goal for Book 7. Great! I couldn't wait to find out how he struggled to attain this set of skills, learned the pain of losing his innocence and tackled with moral ambiguity, finally achieving all three skills only to decide in the end that he shall not defeat the Evil Power by using an Evil Curse. We had a great formula ready for the finale of this coming-of-age story.
And yet, between HBP and DH, suddenly and without explanation, Harry has somehow achieved this competence, without *any* conscious learning, or training, or tutoring from anyone or effort spent on his own. While skipping school and wandering all over Britain doing *nothing* that even remotely resembles self-teaching or pursuing spiritual enlightenment.
I mean, wasn't Harry even *worried* at the end of DH that he was so weak against Snape and totally lacked Unforgivable abilities? Sure, as readers we meta-textually already knew that Harry was probably not going to AK Voldemort into non-existence, because that would be too vulgar and entirely too un-Good for a children's fable. But Harry wasn't to know that, right? His plan was: 1) find the Horcruxes, thereby 2) rendering Voldemort mortal, and then 3) kill him. How was he going to approach Step 3 without being able to use the spell that does the job? But he never worries. He doesn't even worry that, when all those Death Eaters are aiming AK at Harry and his friends, he might fail to protect them if he doesn't know how to fight back in equal measure. He doesn't angst over his inadequacy, or work for self-improvement in any conscious manner, except when it comes to immediate tasks at hand (such as Apparating under an Invisibility Cloak) ...
And yet, the ability comes to him out of the blue when it's convenient. Just because his snowy owl died and that symbolizes his loss of innocence. WTF!? What is the use of schools anymore if all you need is to get your pets killed to achieve huge fundamental developments?
Now suddenly he can use Imperius, which we never knew whether he could before or not but we never expected he would ever *choose* to... And there's no moral dilemma he has to deal with afterwards. Or any Id-Ego-Superego discussion between him and Ron and Hermione. Never mind all that, it worked, good, let's just move on. And somehow now he can do Cruciatus too, and he's not even surprised at this, just reacting with "Hey, Bellatrix was right! Cool!" And nobody berates him for the morality of using a Torture Curse when it wasn't even necessary to save a life. (Apparently it's "gallant" now, according to his teacher. Again, WTF.)
And lastly but most tragically, we never even find out whether Harry is now capable of the AK curse, because we never saw him consciously training for it or any of the other Unforgivables to begin with. They just happened when he needed them, and this time he just *happens* to choose to kill Voldemort with a disarmament spell. No learning. No understanding. No moral choice.
That's like saying "If you happen to be Good, you're Good. That's your signature stamp, close your eyes and use it." Where's the learning? Where's the coming of age? Loss of innocence as something you struggle with and learn to work with rather than something that just happens to you, like loss of virginity by rape? Why not use the metaphor of the apple if the metaphor of the snake and the Sin is already so nauseatingly omnipresent? This whole aspect of the tale not just frustrated me but somehow rubbed me the wrong way.
...Er. Sorry for rambling on so much!
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In the end, it seems like she was shooting too much for a child-friendly story, in some capacity, and didn't really consider the angles needed for a really good story. But it became movies, and that's pretty much all a series needs anymore. I've been working on a plot for a version where Harry is sorted into Slytherin and has to cope with things like peer pressure from Draco Malfoy, actually understanding some of the things going on around him but still having to face them, probably lots more of his own inner darkness, and worst of all, having to be a Chaser for Slytherin after Malfoy buys his way onto the team as Seeker. Imagine the horror of not mattering at all to the outcome of the game... I really need to write that bit.
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But still, it's not like I necessarily care how one does it. It's not the technical stuff that's missing but the feeling that Harry is preparing himself and growing and learning spiritually. The camping trip has some of the trappings of that, but it doesn't deliver. Harry's literally just sitting around waiting for things to fall into his lap. He's not even learning how to survive on nothing since he's magical.
Even all the supposed "lessons" with Dumbledore were for nothing. It all came down to: "Voldemort's horcruxes are all going to be symbolic for the different houses at Hogwarts." His history etc. wasn't needed at all, it was just a backstory told to fill out HBP.
I loved your rambling!
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The thing that I thought was frankly rather stupid in the setup of the DA was Hermione's reason for having Harry tutor them in the first place. "We need to learn more than we've learned in class, and we've learned all we possibly can out of books. We need *Harry* to teach us, because he's extra-special good at Defense!" Yeah, except... he started with Expelliarmus, which they'd all learned together in second year Dueling Club, but somehow no one else knew. And he ended with the Patronus Charm, which he did learn in special one-on-one lessons. However, they didn't even practice against a *fake* Dementor, so it really wasn't any better than studying it out of a book would have been. Every other spell they worked on was one that Harry learned while studying for the Triwizard Tournament -- all of which he learned out of books. With Hermione's help. Yet he's supposed to teach Hermione because they've learned all they can out of books? WTF?
At least in OotP, though, Harry's extra lessons, the Occlumency ones, *meant* something. He blew them off out of petulance, stubbornness, and a belief they weren't necessary, and he paid for it. Big time, with the death of someone he loved. And he immediately starts blaming Snape for it, which is totally wrong, but it's in character, it's psychologically understandable, and adds an interesting depth to his character (especially if on an unconscious level he realizes it's mostly his fault, which is unclear). I thought it was great. Imagine my surprise when, after it was such a huge deal in OotP, it's not even remotely important in HBP because Voldemort decided to shut down the link. Follow the surprise with horror when, in DH, the link isn't only inexplicably open, but Harry still doesn't make any effort to shut it down from his side -- and then he's RIGHT! Having the open link is a GOOD thing! It's what gives them all the info they need to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes!!! GYAHH!!!
Then, as you said, all the extra "lessons" in HBP, all of which could have been compressed into, "Harry, I think you should know more about your enemy. Let's sit down over tea and talk about this." Followed by a second, "Okay, so we aren't 100% confident on this, but I'm pretty sure this is why Voldemort didn't die when you were a baby, and what we need to do in order to reverse that." Two lengthy conversations. No ridiculous tasks about obtaining memories, no claims that Harry was actually *learning* anything remotely useful (except for the 'what's a horcrux?' lesson). Or better yet, he could have actually *had* real lessons, where he learned real skills and strategies, with the horcrux info as one day's study.
And yes, finally in DH, where school was totally nothing at all. The folks at Hogwarts were surviving and growing, without their classes or with their classes totally distorted. That, frankly, would have been interesting to see (though darker then I generally like to read). HRH weren't at school, they were wandering the country on particular tasks. Also potentially interesting. If they were actually DOING anything! Studying, learning more about how to get by on the run, evasion techniques, digging for information on horcruxes, dueling, dark magic. Anything. But as you said, they spend the entire time sitting around waiting for something to happen. What a waste.
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It's like Fred and George dropping out--I've got no problem with them leaving school after fifth year to open a store. (Though as slinkhard points out--God forbid they should have any sort of apprenticeship rather than have the kid fantasy of just opening a store and knowing how to run it immediately.) I actually like societies where there's different paths you can take for different professions. But in these books it's like it just once again comes down to everybody knowing you don't really learn anything in school worth knowing. You need life for that. Even though when Harry actually gets out into life it's even less educational than school itself.
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In fact, it's exactly the opposite of what one might reasonably expect: Starting out on the childish notion of "school is just useless waste of time!", ending up with the experience that - lo and behold! - school DOES come in useful sometimes. In HP, it's the other way round.
The camping trip has some of the trappings of that, but it doesn't deliver.
Oh yes - just like the pensieve vignettes in HBP which reminded me strongly of Hercule Poirot's way of eliciting accounts about the past from different people in order to draw ingenious conclusions from. In both cases, it is as if JKR used the outward trappings but without ultimately understanding what their point was.
His history etc. wasn't needed at all, it was just a backstory told to fill out HBP.
I can't be bothered at the moment to go through all those scenes, but I very strongly suspect they really were nothing more than a colourful depiction of Tom's life. I kept waiting for this making sense in the way, that at some moment, Harry was going to realize Dumbledore had been wrong in a crucial assumption of his, because he (harry) had seen these memories and picked up different things, something Dumbledore couldn't have told him because he overlooked it. But no - it was just the wizarding equivalent of a telenovela he was watching...
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I mean, talk about an utterly fascinating storyline, had it been done with any *shred* of competence. It could have been mind-bogglingly, eye-wateringly brilliant.
And instead it just felt tacked on and lame. That in and of itself nearly makes my eyes water, only this time from shame and disappointment, and not because I'm overcome with beauty and brilliance.
The other thing that I am really so appallingly horrified about is her treatment of Snape. And given that Draco could never *be* the "master" of the Elder Wand (because he never held it, so *HARRY* could never have "won" it from Draco, by Jo's own logic), and that Snape was apparently only killed so that the Dark Lord could *become* the (presumed) "master" of the wand, I honestly think the two were interrelated.
Jo has always been horrified when someone shows an interest in Snape. I really am beginning to feel like she did this random, half-assed, unbaked story line to have a way to get rid of him, and caused her own story to suffer in the process.
And what really also sucks is, it makes *everything* she did with Snape — making him the wonderfully multi-dimensional character a lot of us have grown to love (even when some of us hate him we love his depth) — it makes all of it a mistake.
And that's really, *really* sad.
Please, don't get me started on the endless camping trip of pointlessness and stupidity. Do you know two years ago I read a fanfic that had them camping in the woods while they tried to find Horcruxes, and moving about every day so they wouldn't get found? Only they ACTUALLY TRIED to find the damned Horcruxes, and studied magic? JEEEEzus.