Book 4 comments: Pt. 2

[joywitch999]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C4073
From: joywitch999
Subject: Book 4 comments: Pt. 2
Date: 7/12/00 4:33 pm  (ET)

I have so much to say about GoF that I am dividing it into 4 posts,
so that none will be overly long. Each post repeats these first few
paragraphs so as to provide the requested spoiler space

LOOK OUT BELOW!!!!! SPOILERS ACOMIN'!!!!!!!!!

2. I think GoF has a major plot hole. I don't see why it was necessary
to have Harry win the Triwizard Tournament in order to have him touch a
portkey. Why couldn't Moody/Crouch have just made any old thing into a
portkey and thrown it in Harry's path sometime during the school year, or
even hit him over the head with a spell? And there was never a guarantee
that Harry would win the tournament and thus actually touch the cup,
even Moody/Crouch's interference didn't make that happen, it occurred
only because of Cedric's sense of fair play. The whole Triwizard thing
is a nice plot device, but it hardly seems necessary from Voldemort's
point of view.

One possible explanation is that because of the enchantments in and
around Hogwarts that maybe portkeys, like electronic devices and
apparating/disapparting spells, don't work there. But if that's true,
how does Moody/Crouch make the Triwizard cup into a portkey? Another
possible explanation is that portkeys don't usually work at Hogwarts, but
Dumbledore has allowed the cup to be "portkey-ized" just this one time,
so as to move the champion out of the maze. This seems far-fetched,
however. Would Bertha Whatshername really know a detail like that? A
why a portkey, when an alarm of some sort would work as well to alert
the judges that the cup was reached?

Another thing that I feel is a plot hole is the complete lack of Quidditch
at Hogwarts all year. I realize that the inter-house championship
was canceled because the teachers were too busy with the Triwizard
tournament, but this seems unrealistic and unfair to me. (And yes, I do
see the irony of using the word "unrealistic" to refer to a detail of
a book about magic.) I mean, the Triwizard Tournament only involves 2
Hogwarts students. Is it really fair to prevent the rest of the students
from playing all year? Is it realistic that Harry, whose major passion in
life is Quidditch, would completely stop playing for an entire year? How
come they don't seem to even have "pickup" Quidditch games at Hogwarts,
they way they do when Harry is visiting the Weasley's house?

OK, one more plot hole. There are countless examples in literature
(and tv and movies also) of the Egotistical Evil Villain Trap, in which
the evil villain gives the hero One Last Chance Before Killing Him,
or else takes time to Wrap Up the Plot before Killing Him, and the hero
inevitably escapes, usually because of a rescue which happens Just in
the Nick of Time. You'd think these evil villains would have learned by
now to kill the hero the second they get their evil hands on him/her. JKR
neatly gets around this with Voldy, since it is very understandable that
Voldy would need to prove to his followers that Harry can not beat him,
and stage a duel rather than just kill him outright. However, JKR falls
into this plot hole when Moody/Crouch takes Harry into his office after
the Tournament and blathers on about how smart he is and forgets to
even look in his foe-mirror, which of course reflects the proverbial
cavalry coming over the hill. And of course the cavalry, in the form
of Dumblefore, McGonagall and Snape, rescues Harry, surprise, surprise,
Just in the Nick of Time. I think that this is the weakest part of the
book, and to me the most disappointing. Not only is the "captured by
the imposter villain and then rescued" plot a clich', but the writing
is derivative. Harry says to Moody/Crouch "You're mad!" and he responds
"Mad, am I?" OK, I am nitpicking here, I admit it, but that dialog is
so old! Of course he's mad, he's an evil villain for gods sake! I hate
it when writers resort to clich's in order to wrap up the story.