Deathly Hallows Chapter 35

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

King’s Cross

I dislike the picture of Harry at the beginning of this chapter (in the U.S. edition). He doesn’t look like himself without the scar or glasses. And he appears to be a disembodied head floating in space. Yuck. But perhaps it was difficult trying to find an image for this chapter that doesn't give away too much.

Now, as I’ve said elsewhere, I came into this book fully expecting that at some point Harry would have a near-death (or beyond death) experience. So, it came as no surprise when this chapter rolled around.

It starts promisingly enough, with a long, slow discovery by Harry of being, then slowly figuring out that he can feel, that he is naked, and that he can, in fact, see.

He finds himself in a misty nothingness, and realizes that 1) he no longer has glasses on, and 2) that he isn’t alone. There is a sound of something small struggling. He finds the noise both pitiful and indecent. He describes it as furtive and shameful. And he wishes that he was clothed.

No sooner does he wish it, then the clothes appear, as though provided by Hogwarts elves. They are soft, clean, and warm, and he finds it miraculous that they have done this, the moment he wanted them! How is this different from his experience at Hogwarts, except that instead of taking it for granted, Harry appreciates it?

Harry wonders if this is another Room of Requirement. As he looks around, a huge glass dome is created before him. The space seems to spring into being before his eyes—the more he looks, the more there is.

And the only thing that detracts from the wonder of it all is that pitiful whimpering, flailing sound. He finally finds it, a small, naked child with flayed skin curled under a bench, where it had been left, unwanted, stuff out-of-sight, struggling for breath.

It’s curious to me how often Voldemort appears as a baby. This is the second time—and the third time that the baby is shown to be horrible. In GoF, the baby was so ugly that fans dubbed it Fetalmort. In HBP, the infant Tom was described as odd. Here, the baby again seems unfinished or… what’s that word they use? Unviable.

On top of making me queasy, it makes me wonder if JKR has some issues with babies. I would assume she doesn’t, since she’s had a number of them. But these Voldemort babies are just grotesque. They seem more like fetuses than actual babies. And there’s always this revulsion towards the baby Voldemort—as much or more than there is when he’s an adult.

As Harry hesitates, thinking he ought to help the suffering child and yet grossed out by it, Dumbledore arrives to let him off the hook. “You cannot help,” he assures Harry.

So, they turn their backs on the flailing, whimpering baby and Dumbledore proceeds to praise Harry for being brave. The shower of praise continues as they walk away and go sit on a bench where they aren’t bothered by the noise.

Harry’s first question is if Dumbledore is dead. Dumbledore assures Harry that he is. Harry then asks if he, Harry, is dead.

“Ah,” Dumbledore twinkles, “That is the question, is it not?”

Harry third question is, “Shall I kick you in the ass, or would you prefer to do that yourself?”

Okay, no, it isn’t. But it ought to be. Actually, Dumbledore says that he thinks Harry is not dead and eventually that, because Harry meant for Voldemort to kill him, only the soul bit was destroyed.

Which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

So, what, Harry asks, is that furtive, shameful baby thing that we’re currently doing our best to ignore?

Something that is beyond either of our help, Dumbledore replies. So is expired milk, Albus. Could you be a bit more specific?

(But apparently it’s not the soul bit from Harry. Which means, I guess, that it’s Voldemort’s remaining eighth of a soul.)

Then it turns out that Harry is still alive because of the blood Voldemort used in reconstituting his body. That blood was related to Lily and meant that while Voldemort lived, Harry would also live.

So, wait a minute. I thought the blood protection thingy was tied to family and home. Does this mean that Harry can’t be killed at all while Dudley and Petunia are alive? They were eaten by dragons! Otherwise Voldemort wouldn’t have had a chance to kill Harry!

And that the whole business about Harry having to live at the Dursleys was nonsense.

Okay, okay, I know. It’s magic. But I wouldn’t put it past Dumbledore to sell everyone on the myth that Harry had to stay at the Dursleys in order to 1) discourage ex-Death Eaters from trying to attack the Boy Who Lived and 2) reinforce the lesson that Hogwarts is where people treat you nicely and Muggleland is where they treat you like crap.

In trying to puzzle over this conundrum, Harry is distracted by the icky baby, but Dumbledore once again assures him that there is nothing to be done. Perhaps Dumbledore is still testing his little puppet to make sure that even the basic human instinct to help a suffering child can be overcome with enough training.

Explain… more, Harry asks.

Dumbledore beams, for this is his favorite activity in life… or death.

You’re the seventh Horcrux, Harry! (Yes, we know that part already.) When Voldemort was vaporized the night he tried to kill you, he lost more than his body. (Duh.) He lost part of his soul! (Okay, now you’re just repeating stuff over and over again, Dumbledore!)

His knowledge is incomplete! (Easy to conclude.) He comprehends nothing of which he does not value! (Can we get to the explaining part?) Love, loyalty, innocence, children’s tales, and house-elves! He knows nothing about their special properties.

House-elves. His biggest flaw is that he doesn’t understand House-elves? Why isn’t Ron Weasley running the world, then? Ron gets House-elves like no one else! He knows they like to serve people and yet shouldn’t be killed arbitrarily!

But perhaps this is JKR’s essential message when Dumbledore says the things he listed have power beyond Voldemort. Power beyond the reach of any magic. And that is what Voldemort never appreciated.

So, the things that are more powerful than any magic are Love, Loyalty, Innocence, Children’s Tales, and House-Elves. Which are purely fictional magical constructs. Or magical talking dogs. Take your pick. In either case, they are magical, which puts them squarely within the reach of magic.

Voldemort, in taking Harry’s blood, kept Lily’s sacrifice alive and, as long as Voldemort lives, so will Harry—and Voldemort’s last hope. (Which, I guess is the hope of restoring his soul through remorse?)

As Dumbledore congratulates himself for guessing all this, the baby whimpers and trembles behind them.

You have to admire the sheer cussedness of JKR in continuing to push this creepy baby on the reader. (I keep imagining it looking like the Simpsons at the end of that episode where they all turned inside out.) When a character deserves punishment, she’ll take it far past the tolerance of anyone to observe it. It’s like Marietta. It’s not enough to give her acne. We need to know that the acne is permanent. Like acid scars.

Harry then makes the mistake of asking why his wand broke Lucius’s wand. Dumbledore doesn’t know, so he makes up some nonsense about Harry and Voldemort wandering into unexplored magical wand territory.

You know, much as Snape isn’t dead, I could almost wish he were so that he could have this conversation with Harry instead of Dumbledore. First off, it would be a lot more satisfying to have the Harry/Snape relationship resolved than this stupid Harry/Dumbledore relationship (which, if anyone needed it, was more elegantly summed up in the whole “I am with you” exchange in HBP).

Secondly, it would mean that Dumbledore’s final appearance in the book would be as the portrait being dismissed by Snape as he takes the sword to Harry—which is really how things should go. Dumbledore was long past dead at that point, and it was time he stopped trying to run things.

Thirdly, it would mean that Snape had finally stepped into the role he seemed to want throughout the series—the wise man. Wasn’t that what he was really searching for, with his library of books and his Dark Arts obsession? And his jealousy that Dumbledore might be sharing knowledge with Harry that he was denying to Snape?

Plus, Snape wouldn’t have tried explaining stuff that’s unexplainable. He would have given Harry detention, instead.

But… since it’s there, let’s look at it. The explanation is that with the binding of Voldemort to Harry with blood, and with the connection of the wand-cores, when the wands fought each other, they didn’t just do the Priori Incantatem effect, Harry’s wand actually absorbed some of Voldemort’s power. That, combined with Harry’s courage, created a superwand that Lucius’s “poor stick” could not possibly withstand.

Riiiight.

How come Hermione was able to break it in half? Harry inconveniently asks.

Oddly, Dumbledore doesn’t blame it on Steve Kloves, but replies that the superpowers of Harry’s Courageous Wand only worked against Voldemort.

Riiiight.

But he killed me with your wand, Harry points out.

But he didn’t, Dumbledore replies, because you’re not dead.

So then they look around, and Harry decides that they are in King’s Cross station. Dumbledore nearly wets himself because this is just so great an after-life metaphor.

Why, oh why did JKR decide to turn Dumbledore into Peter Pettigrew? Even Harry finds him infuriating at this point, and punishes him by asking about the Deathly Hallows.

At which point, the resemblance to Peter Pettigrew grows stronger as Dumbledore takes on the look of a small boy caught in wrongdoing and starts begging Harry for forgiveness.

He asks Harry to forgive him for not telling him about the Hallows. Then he calls them a dangerous lure, a desperate man’s dream. Then he asks if he’s any better than Voldemort, since he wanted to become the Master of Death.

Harry assures Dumbledore that he was better than Voldemort, since he never killed if he could avoid it.

Dumbledore agrees, although I do not. (He murdered Snape!) But he insists that he tried to conquer death. So, was all that “next great adventure” stuff just bullcrap?

But, Harry insists, there was a difference. Hallows are better than Horcruxes! My fictional magical construct is better than your fictional magical construct!

Okay, okay, you don’t necessarily have to kill anyone to obtain the Hallows. And you definitely have to do that to get a Horcrux. So, I guess Harry has a point there.

As if to prove this moral superiority, Harry hears the baby whimpering but no longer feels any urge to look at it.

Dumbledore now goes on to explain his relationship with Grindelwald, leaving out the part about being in love with him. According to Dumbledore, their relationship was based on cleverness and arrogance, and a shared obsession for the Deathly Hallows quest. Grindelwald came to Godric’s Hollow to look at the grave of Ignotus Peverell, who just happens to be….. Harry’s ancestor!

Remember how fans thought that Harry might be descended from Godric Gryffindor? Well, isn’t this so much better? Godric was just a buff warrior with a penchant for Goblin-made swords and ratty headgear. Ignotus Peverell had an invisibility cloak!

So, the legend is true. Sort of. Dumbledore doesn’t believe the Peverell brothers actually met Death, but were “gifted, dangerous” wizards who happened to invent three powerful objects. Which would argue to me that there’s nothing particularly special about having all three of them.

Also, it sort of makes them sound like Fred and George plus one. Just think, in hundreds of years to come, there could be a story about a pair of brothers who met Death on a lonely road, and he bestowed on them food that was delicious but deadly, and a wand that turned into a rubber chicken.

Then Dumbledore explains that he had James’s cloak because he had borrowed it a couple days before James was killed. JKR hinted in a pre-book interview that the question of how Dumbledore came to have the cloak was an interesting one. It might have been an interesting question, but the answer turns out to be quite dull. Borrowing it so that Snape could spy on the Death Eaters was a lot more interesting.

Dumbledore laments that he held two of the Deathly Hallows in his hands at once, but that James had died, so it wasn’t that great. Harry points out that the Cloak wouldn’t have helped James—he was killed too quickly to even pick up the wand that was six inches away. No responsibility for Dumbledore in their deaths! Not even indirect responsibility. It was Snape’s fault. It was Peter’s fault. It was Sirius’s fault. It was James’s fault.

None of it was Dumbledore’s.

But Dumbledore insists that Harry ought to despise him and finally gets to reason why: Because he resented taking care of his sister after his mother died.

Oh my God. That’s it?! Harry shouldn’t despise Dumbedore raising him like a lab monkey, putting him through tests and mazes, and giving him a steel monkey replica like Petunia as a mother figure? He shouldn’t resent Dumbledore for repeatedly lying to him and ordering him to refuse the help of loyal people who were dying to help out and had the necessary expertise? He shouldn’t resent Dumbledore for engineering events so that Harry would commit suicide by Voldemort? No, no. The reason Harry ought to hate Dumbledore is because, for a period of roughly two months, one hundred years before Harry was born, Dumbledore had to take care of his sister and he didn’t want to!

So now Dumbledore retells the story that we’ve now heard fifty million times before—with no practical difference from the version Aberforth told. Granted, there are a few additional details. We learn, for example, that Albus and Gellert had prosaic reasons for looking for each Hallow. The wand, for example, was basically them looking for a 10x vorpal sword of doom.

Gellert wanted to use the stone to create an army of Inferi. Does that mean that the Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus that appeared to Harry were Inferi? They didn’t look or act anything like the Inferi in HBP. They were somewhat substantial, in that Harry heard them approaching—but it seems like Gellert would have been pretty disappointed in his army had he gotten it.

Of course, if Voldemort had used the stone to create his Army, that would have been cool and creepy. It would also explain why he didn’t make any in the second war. But that’s definitely not touched on in the book.

Dumbledore wanted to bring his parents back so that they could look after Ariana and he could go back to being brilliant and famous. Ghost parents. I can’t help but find that a pretty fun concept (which apparently forms the premise for Neil Gaiman’s new book The Graveyard). I think it would make a good sitcom.

But he didn’t need his parents, really. All he needed was a house-elf. But the Quest for a Good House-Elf wasn’t as attractive as the Deathly Hallows Quest.

And the Cloak! Gellert wasn’t really interested in that one, and Albus just wanted it to drape over Ariana so that he could ignore her more easily. Sort of like that whimpering baby under the bench. You know, I don’t think Harry should be taking advice from Albus Dumbledore about ignoring people. Not after this big confession.

But, even though he believes that the Hallows were simply three over-powered objects, Albus did believe that if they were joined together, they would make him the Master of Death and he interpreted that to mean “invincible.” Which wasn’t exactly what Voldemort was after. Voldemort started out invincible.

After two months of this madness, Aberforth returned and the whole fight started and Ariana died and we’ve heard this before. Albus manages to subtly blame it on Gellert, by saying “Grindelwald lost control. That which I had always sensed in him, though I pretended not it, now sprang into terrible being.”

This sounds a bit like Snape losing control with Petunia—rather than someone deliberately trying to torture or kill someone. And, as with Snape, it seems like the “terrible” thing was inherently within him, and all it took was the right circumstances for it to come out—instead of the act being terrible, the person is terrible. Choices do not make us who we are, they show us who we are.

Grindelwald fled, and Dumbledore was left with his shame and grief. Years passed and Grindelwald was rumored to have a really powerful wand that no one recognized as the Elder Wand, including Gregorovitch, wandmaker extraordinaire, who had owned the thing previously.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was offered the Minister of Magic position, but declined, realizing he was not to be trusted with power. Except for the power of molding the minds of each new generation.

But you would have been tons better than Fudge or Scrimgeour! Protests Harry, who seems to have forgotten that Scrimgeour held off Voldemort for over a year with no help from Dumbledore, thank you very much, and withstood torture to protect Harry. Something Dumbledore was too scared to do.

But Dumbledore disagrees with Harry. His ambition to have power meant that he was unworthy of it. People like Harry, who have no desire for power at all, would make the best leaders.

That would be Fudge, wouldn’t it? Fudge wasn’t into power. He was almost the opposite. He wanted Dumbledore to tell him what to do until the end of GoF, and he happily gave up the Ministry at the beginning of HBP. His big flaw was an inability to face hard truths. A trait he shares with one Harry Potter, who preferred to think that Sirius had died because of Snape taunted him, rather than face the truth that his own actions had been responsible for his godfather’s death.

Dumbledore believes he was safer at Hogwarts, and Harry assures him that he was the best teacher. I would point out all the flaws in that statement, but there’s a limit to how much Live Journal will allow you post, so I’ll content myself with Dumbledore neglecting to tell Harry how to detect a Horcrux, or what to do once he found one. And that one homework assignment that consisted of taking drugs, getting a teacher drunk and emotionally manipulating him.

Dumbledore then confesses that he delayed dealing with Grindelwald (which is essentially what Fudge did with Voldemort, no?) because he was afraid. Not, Dumbledore assures Harry, of death. No, no. Dumbledore was pretty sure he was more skillful than Grindelwald. Never you fear that Dumbledore wasn’t the biggest badass wizard in the world! No, he was afraid that Grindelwald would accuse him of casting the curse that killed Ariana.

Because you’d feel even more guilty, Albus? You’re dead and you’re sobbing all over Harry’s shoulder already. Would you really feel more guilty than that?

So, people were dying and Albus was too chicken to fight Grindelwald, because Grindelwald might… taunt him or something. And then they met and Dumbledore whipped his ass. End of story.

You know, Dumbledore’s stories are never as thrilling as he likes to pretend.

A silence follows the story in which Harry reflects that Dumbledore was really sorry about Ariana and would probably have seen her in the Mirror of Erised. And then the baby whimpers again, and Harry barely even notices.

Because what’s the whimpering of a baby with raw, flayed skin compared to the guilty sobs of a dead old man?

Then they talk about Grindelwald and Harry tells Dumbledore about Grindelwald lying to Voldemort and they agree that this was maybe a sign that he regretted killing and torturing millions of people. Or thousands. Or dozens. It’s always hard to tell with wizard numbers.

And then they confirm that Dumbledore’s dead arm came from him putting on the ring with the Resurrection stone. Alas, Jodel, it’s pretty clear from the text here that Ariana, Kendra, and Percival didn’t actually appear. What isn’t explained is how Dumbledore got back to the castle, or whether he was in the castle when he put the ring on, and how it was that Snape even knew to come help him. But I’m sure there are a bunch of fics out there to cover that.

So then Dumbledore declares that he himself was only worthy to hold the Elder Wand, to tame it—not to use it to kill. And only because he took it to save others from it. Which I don’t buy at all. Because why would the Elder Wand, even if it is sentient, care about the motive of the person holding it? If it cared that much, it wouldn’t go around killing people, would it?

The Cloak was beyond Dumbledore’s worth, he says, because he took it out of vain curiosity. It could never work for me, he says, as it works for you, its true owner. Vain curiosity is not as noble a motive as being able to sneak around without Filch catching you. If only Dumbledore had used it to get sweets from Honeydukes!

Dumbledore tells Harry that he, Harry, is the only worthy possessor of the Hallows. I would like to point out right here that, as of this conversation, Harry has only ever held two of the Hallows. So, he’s not Master of anything yet.

After that bit of outrageous flattery, Harry decides he can’t be angry with Dumbledore and smiles at him, asking, “Why did you have to make it so difficult?”

Dumbledore explains that he was afraid that if he told Harry outright about the Hallows, Harry would try to seize them with his hot head, for the wrong reasons. Again, I just don’t buy this, because there was no need to tell Harry about any of it. Harry already had the Cloak. Whether or not he knew what the Stone was, he could have safely used it at the proper time. And he never had and never will have a pressing need for that wand.

Had Dumbledore never left clues with Hermione Granger, then Harry would never have sought the Hallows at all. And, since it’s the seeking that makes one unworthy of them, then the entire quest was counterproductive. The only reason to bring them up at all was to give Harry the opportunity to refuse the quest.

So, the way to win the quest is never to start it in the first place. I doubt this was what Joseph Campbell was getting at. Maybe this is what JKR means by subverting the genre?

But let me quote the moral: You are the true mater of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understand that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.

By this criteria, Snape is also the master of death. So is Fred, and Lupin, and Tonks. And pretty much everyone else at Hogwarts that night, including the Death Eaters. Just about the only person who doesn’t get that simple concept is Voldemort.

Harry and Dumbledore establish that Voldemort probably didn’t know about the Hallows and wouldn’t have cared about them in any case, because two of them were pretty lame. The only one he would (and did) care about was the Elder Wand.

Harry asks if Dumbledore thought Voldemort would look for the Elder Wand, and Dumbledore confirms that he did. He then explains how Voldemort would come to seek the wand, including some events that took place after Dumbledore’s death—and thus couldn’t really have been part of Dumbledore’s conclusion, but let’s not quibble.

So, Harry goes on, you intended for Snape to end up with the Elder Wand. Dumbledore admits that that was his intention.

So, Dumbledore’s plan was for Snape to either become the master of the wand (provided the wand didn’t care that Dumbledore didn’t fight back) or that the power of the wand would die with Dumbledore (should Dumbledore’s passive acceptance of his death make a difference). Either way, it would have been nice to let Snape know, yes?

But, of course, the wand didn’t care whether or not Dumbledore fought back, because he wasn’t fighting Draco either. So, presumably the power would have passed to Snape, who would have been in no position to use it, since he would have been in Azkaban or soul-sucked.

And Voldemort would have had exactly the same motive for killing Snape.

I really can’t come up with any scenario where Snape doesn’t get targeted for death because of Dumbledore’s actions. And where very simple steps by Dumbledore couldn’t have prevented that from taking place.

Either Dumbledore wanted Snape to die, or he didn’t care enough to either 1) snap the wand before his death, 2) have the wand burned after his death, or 3) tell Snape to retrieve the wand after his death and keep it hidden.

Is that really any better than asking Voldemort to spare Lily without also asking him to spare a couple other people? I guess so, because Snape is disgusting.

Harry and Dumbledore sit for awhile longer. The baby moans and cries.

Harry realizes that he needs to go back, although Dumbledore says that Harry gets to choose. If he wants to go on, he can. If he goes back, he may be able to finish Voldemort for good. “But I know this, Harry, that you have less to fear from returning here than he does.”

Harry glances at the baby, and Dumbledore says, “Do not pity the dead, Harry.”

Excuse me a moment. Bwhahahaha! Then what did we spent half the book about, but some pitiful dead girl? Weren’t we supposed to weep tears over her sad fate? Why didn’t the world stop when Fred breathed his last? But do not pity him.

No, the problem with people dying isn’t the people who die. It’s the people who love them who will miss them. That’s the bad part about death.

While I’ve been gasping and rolling on the floor, Harry has been thinking about his decision. He decides it won’t be as hard waking to his life as walking to his death had been, but it’ll be less pleasant than sitting in an imaginary train station, listening to a baby choke to death.

He and Dumbledore stand up and look at each other. Is this real, Harry asks, or merely in my head?

Dumbledore replies, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth would that mean that it is not real?”

Whereupon the small, naked suffering child gets up, crawls over to Dumbledore, and kicks him in the ass.

Not really. But don’t you wish that it had?

Fan Service:
Another naked Harry scene!
Dumbledore comes back and explains things! Those were the best parts of the first five books!

Fan Slappage:
These are the stupidest explanations ever.


DVD Extras:

INT: AFTERLIFE KING’S CROSS STATION

Harry tearfully turns away from Dumbledore and begins walking to the entrance of the station. He has a determined look on his face.

In the background, a train slows to a halt, exhaling steam. An old man steps down from the train. Albus Dumbledore turns to look at him, surprised.

MAN
Albus?

DUMBLEDORE
Gellert?

Gellert Grindelwald smiles, a bit of that wild handsome child peeking out from behind the wrinkles and hobbles forward, his arms outstretched.

GRINDELWALD
Albus! Albus! It’s been so long!

DUMBLEDORE
Where have you been?

GRINDELWALD
Filling out the paperwork. Who knew the afterlife would have so much?

DUMBLEDORE
But that shouldn’t have taken more than a few hours….

GRINDELWALD
Please. I’m German. It took weeks.

They move to sit on a bench as the train pulls out.

GRINDELWALD
You’re looking very well.

DUMBLEDORE
I had a good life. But I did miss you.

GRINDELWALD
And I, you. So this is death, eh?

He cranes his neck to examine the station.

DUMBLEDORE
Part of it.

GRINDELWALD
I assume one could take a train to any destination one chooses?

DUMBLEDORE
Where shall we go?

GRINDELWALD
Some place warm. Morocco?

DUMBLEDORE
Good choice.

They stroll arm in arm to the train that suddenly appears. As they pass a bench, the flaying, whimpering child underneath it cries out. Grindelwald glances down and does a double-take.

GRINDELWALD
Tortured soul?

DUMBLEDORE
(nodding serenely) Nothing to be done.

Grindelwald shrugs and climbs the train steps. Dumbledore follows him.

DUMBLEDORE
To the next great adventure!

GRINDELWALD
To mastering death!

They clink the champagne glasses that magically appear in their hands and smile. As the train pulls away, they lean forward and touch their lips in a kiss.

IRIS OUT IN A HEART-SHAPE.

Comments

Re: Part 1 of 2

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Which Selwyn wouldn't have been able to do, either. Bye-bye, Selwyn!

But doesn't it seem like another WB cartoon image? Voldemort is fine flying until he realizes that he can't, starts flailing, and then drops like a stone. Just like Wiley Coyote.

Re: Part 1 of 2

[oryx_leucoryx]

Selwyn was on a broom, so he didn't need a wand to stay in the air, only to fight. And he does show up again - I think he was one of the 2 DEs that showed up at Xeno's home.

Re: Part 1 of 2

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

If Lily didn't need a wand to float in the air as a child, it's possible that Voldemort didn't need one as an adult... unless Lily was, you know, just so super-special that the Darkest Wizard of All Time couldn't match her.

I think Voldemort wanted Selwyn's wand so he could do some killin'.