I remember being quite thrilled with the idea of a solid, bona fide, fair dinkum prophecy as it stood at the end of the fifth book. Harry pondering his fate - to be murdered or murderer. Wondering what this 'power the dark lord knows not' could possibly be.
I've read several fan fiction stories which stand as solid testament as to the potential of the prophecy as a device for generating maximum angst and drama. The way that Harry reveals it to his friends - from one at a time, to only those closest to him - with them giving him solace and support - to mass 'broadcasts' to the wizarding populace. The reactions of those who find out. The tension in trying to keep Voldemort from learning the whole thing. Ploys in fabricating 'false prophecies' to give the dark lord. Differences in how the prophecy can be interpreted. Danger where one least expects it ... was Pettigrew's artificial limb fashioned by 'the hand of the other', could Pettigrew therefore kill Harry? What was the meaning of the superficially nonsensical 'neither can live while the other survives' thing? Was Harry immortal? And so forth.
But no. Rowling only mentioned the prophecy twice in the next book - she made a deliberate farce of Harry's unveiling it to his two closest friends (Hermione gets punched in the eye by a joke telescope three nanoseconds after he tells them about it, completely defusing the moment) and then nothing more happens until Dumbledore poo-poos the whole thing. Harry, the prophecy means nothing, there's no power other than your 'love' (which turns out to be bollocks), okay, I let two men, almost three, die protecting it from Voldemort, but really now, put it out of your mind, forget that your beloved godfather died because I put so much priority on protecting the prophecy I failed to tell you anything about it ...
Bleh.
And then in the seventh book it's left unmentioned until the very end, where Harry pays it some lip service in justifying his suicide march, helping to build up his fatalistic determination to die ... and then Rowling has the effrontery to have him quote the darn thing, 'neither must live while the other survives', in the final piece of melodrama against the Dark Lord. Trying to justify the whole thing, having it stick in the readers' minds - oh, Harry mentioned the prophecy, yeah, it must have been relevant after all!
Bah!
It really takes away from her story when she rubbishes something on which she built her plot earlier on.
Precisely. Normally she just drops such one-shot wonders. In this case the prophecy popped in and out of the last two books, meaning almost nothing but just irritating us with its presence (and irritating me when I come across brainwashed fans who insist that Harry was fated to defeat Voldemort 'because of the prophecy', that he *did* have a 'power of love' and so forth - argh!).
Still, it could be worse - it could turn out that Wizards could be their own Secret Keepers and the key event that whole series was based on was pointless. Even JKR wouldn't shoot her series in the foot to that extent! Oh wait...
Hee. :-)
Yes, the entire series is in ruins because of that seventh book, isn't it? She'd given up any pretence of quality control by then.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-03-06 03:39 am (UTC)I've read several fan fiction stories which stand as solid testament as to the potential of the prophecy as a device for generating maximum angst and drama. The way that Harry reveals it to his friends - from one at a time, to only those closest to him - with them giving him solace and support - to mass 'broadcasts' to the wizarding populace. The reactions of those who find out. The tension in trying to keep Voldemort from learning the whole thing. Ploys in fabricating 'false prophecies' to give the dark lord. Differences in how the prophecy can be interpreted. Danger where one least expects it ... was Pettigrew's artificial limb fashioned by 'the hand of the other', could Pettigrew therefore kill Harry? What was the meaning of the superficially nonsensical 'neither can live while the other survives' thing? Was Harry immortal? And so forth.
But no. Rowling only mentioned the prophecy twice in the next book - she made a deliberate farce of Harry's unveiling it to his two closest friends (Hermione gets punched in the eye by a joke telescope three nanoseconds after he tells them about it, completely defusing the moment) and then nothing more happens until Dumbledore poo-poos the whole thing. Harry, the prophecy means nothing, there's no power other than your 'love' (which turns out to be bollocks), okay, I let two men, almost three, die protecting it from Voldemort, but really now, put it out of your mind, forget that your beloved godfather died because I put so much priority on protecting the prophecy I failed to tell you anything about it ...
Bleh.
And then in the seventh book it's left unmentioned until the very end, where Harry pays it some lip service in justifying his suicide march, helping to build up his fatalistic determination to die ... and then Rowling has the effrontery to have him quote the darn thing, 'neither must live while the other survives', in the final piece of melodrama against the Dark Lord. Trying to justify the whole thing, having it stick in the readers' minds - oh, Harry mentioned the prophecy, yeah, it must have been relevant after all!
Bah!
It really takes away from her story when she rubbishes something on which she built her plot earlier on.
Precisely. Normally she just drops such one-shot wonders. In this case the prophecy popped in and out of the last two books, meaning almost nothing but just irritating us with its presence (and irritating me when I come across brainwashed fans who insist that Harry was fated to defeat Voldemort 'because of the prophecy', that he *did* have a 'power of love' and so forth - argh!).
Still, it could be worse - it could turn out that Wizards could be their own Secret Keepers and the key event that whole series was based on was pointless. Even JKR wouldn't shoot her series in the foot to that extent! Oh wait...
Hee. :-)
Yes, the entire series is in ruins because of that seventh book, isn't it? She'd given up any pretence of quality control by then.