*ETA: ::sigh:: What happened to Tom anyway? One super secret bit of info about Horcruxes must be that they destroy your mind together with your soul. You joked in one of the previous recaps about Snape creating zombie!Draco after Sectumsempra, are we sure it's not what happens in the process of creating a Horcrux?
I have read a collection of short stories of various authors about immortality. (Unfortunately, can't find the book's name now, but it was very interesting). Iirc, one of sf stories (may be even in another book) told a story about a society, in which at certain age everybody goes through a major brain surgery so that to remain young forever. The main character is afraid the surgery will kill him - that the person after it will look like him & talk like him, but won't be him. And something similar happens. After the surgery another consciousness takes over his body. He exists yet in his body, but can't control it any longer. If creating a Horcrux meant something similar (potential immortality of somebody, who isn't you any longer), it would make sense why wizards wouldn't try that. Why destroy both your soul and your body, killing yourself before your natural end? Muggleborn and arrogant Tom wouldn't believe it, of course. He would think that if somebody looking and behaving like him continued to exist in his body, it had to be him. That he was special and wouldn't get hurt somehow. Probably he didn't have complete information either. And go through the process at 16, thus creating a monstrous caricature of himself. If the tough, intelligent 11-year-old orphan could see GoF Voldemort, whining about his followers forsaking him, he would be horrified and disgusted. That's my theory, at least.
*ETA: This is one of those places where you're reminded that there's really no crossover into the adult world for Harry and the kids. We'll just assume that in the epilogue he knows all this stuff he never seems to study in school and duels at a much higher level. I have never thought we're supposed to assume Harry duels at a much higher level in the epilogue. Hasn't he learned everything by preparing for the tasks in GoF, leading DA in OoTF and reading HBP's textbook? Wasn't he the only O in DADA in his year? Doesn't he have the quickest reflexes after years of Quidditch, which let him escape Voldemort in GoF? What poor JKR had to do more to make you believe in our hero's abilities, sistermagpie? Turn him into Harry!Sue?
*ETA: But then, even Patronus isn't taught at Hogwarts. I read theories about the evil Ministry preventing that, since it relies on Dementors to guard prisoners. Just had a thought that if that's the case, DD may not be completely opposed to the idea. Why teach Slytherins how to escape from Azkaban, where they belong?
*Good thing Tom didn’t use the Slytherin method, huh? Stare at the rock and say "Genocide." The sad thing is that DD would have more difficulty cracking this code than doing all this complex magic he did in this chapter. It's like playing Lotto versus solving a math problem. (With DD being a brilliant mathematician, of course). Sometimes simpler is harder, Voldemort!
I don't know whether Dumbledore misunderestimates the youth in this book but he certainly doesn't ever consider them capable of handling themselves on their own. I am sure we are supposed to understand it's all because of his tragic past - after making numerous mistakes in his youth, DD is fully committed to preventing his young charges from doing the same. He's like an anxious parent this way.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-01-23 09:03 pm (UTC)One super secret bit of info about Horcruxes must be that they destroy your mind together with your soul. You joked in one of the previous recaps about Snape creating zombie!Draco after Sectumsempra, are we sure it's not what happens in the process of creating a Horcrux?
I have read a collection of short stories of various authors about immortality. (Unfortunately, can't find the book's name now, but it was very interesting). Iirc, one of sf stories (may be even in another book) told a story about a society, in which at certain age everybody goes through a major brain surgery so that to remain young forever. The main character is afraid the surgery will kill him - that the person after it will look like him & talk like him, but won't be him. And something similar happens. After the surgery another consciousness takes over his body. He exists yet in his body, but can't control it any longer. If creating a Horcrux meant something similar (potential immortality of somebody, who isn't you any longer), it would make sense why wizards wouldn't try that. Why destroy both your soul and your body, killing yourself before your natural end? Muggleborn and arrogant Tom wouldn't believe it, of course. He would think that if somebody looking and behaving like him continued to exist in his body, it had to be him. That he was special and wouldn't get hurt somehow. Probably he didn't have complete information either. And go through the process at 16, thus creating a monstrous caricature of himself. If the tough, intelligent 11-year-old orphan could see GoF Voldemort, whining about his followers forsaking him, he would be horrified and disgusted. That's my theory, at least.
*ETA: This is one of those places where you're reminded that there's really no crossover into the adult world for Harry and the kids. We'll just assume that in the epilogue he knows all this stuff he never seems to study in school and duels at a much higher level.
I have never thought we're supposed to assume Harry duels at a much higher level in the epilogue. Hasn't he learned everything by preparing for the tasks in GoF, leading DA in OoTF and reading HBP's textbook? Wasn't he the only O in DADA in his year? Doesn't he have the quickest reflexes after years of Quidditch, which let him escape Voldemort in GoF? What poor JKR had to do more to make you believe in our hero's abilities, sistermagpie? Turn him into Harry!Sue?
*ETA: But then, even Patronus isn't taught at Hogwarts.
I read theories about the evil Ministry preventing that, since it relies on Dementors to guard prisoners. Just had a thought that if that's the case, DD may not be completely opposed to the idea. Why teach Slytherins how to escape from Azkaban, where they belong?
*Good thing Tom didn’t use the Slytherin method, huh? Stare at the rock and say "Genocide."
The sad thing is that DD would have more difficulty cracking this code than doing all this complex magic he did in this chapter. It's like playing Lotto versus solving a math problem. (With DD being a brilliant mathematician, of course). Sometimes simpler is harder, Voldemort!
I don't know whether Dumbledore misunderestimates the youth in this book but he certainly doesn't ever consider them capable of handling themselves on their own.
I am sure we are supposed to understand it's all because of his tragic past - after making numerous mistakes in his youth, DD is fully committed to preventing his young charges from doing the same. He's like an anxious parent this way.