Bang! You're Dead. (was:Voldemorts animus...)

[Martha]

No: HPFGUIDX 85908

Kneasy, in message 85883:

>As an enthusiastic afficianado of gore-splattered mayhem I am under-
whelmed, nay, distressed by the current outbreak of touchy-feely
new age 'don't let's be nasty to Voldemort.' It seems that although 
he and his enthusiastic band of supremacist murderers have 
slaughtered uncounted innocents over the years, all his sins will be 
wiped out by the goodness in Harry's heart. 

<snip, snip, the scissors go> 

>I can believe that this unknown power in Harry might save him 
(again!) from Voldemort, just as it did in the Ministry, but I don't 
believe it can change Voldemort in a Scrooge-like conversion 
accompanied by soaring strings and a heavenly choir.

Martha:

Kneasy, I'm with you on the happy-clappy ending. The idea that Harry 
does something noble, or brave, or generous or whatever, melts 
Voldie's heart, and then they all go and party with the Ewoks is a 
bit - well - sentimental, and pretty repugnant IMO. I just don't buy 
it. Voldemort's been doing evil for decades. I refuse to accept that 
he'll change all that because Harry - his arch-enemy, arguably - does 
something nice. What's he going to do? Give him flowers? 

However... I'm also unsure about this whole gore-splattered mayhem 
thing. As Berit says:

>I just don't think it will happen in a frenzy of hatred from
Harry; "Take that!" *splash* and "take this" *the breaking of bones*
and "serves you right" *splat; tearing out Voldemort's eyes*... 

To which Kneasy replied:

> Why ever not? Doesn't he deserve it?

Martha:

Possibly he does deserve it. But as a reader of novels - that is, I 
read these books because I enjoy them - I'm not sure that would 
satisfy me. Harry goes through years and years of being the good guy 
fighting the bad guy and then at the end, there is an even bigger 
battle scene with even more explosions and then it's all over? Again -
 I don't buy it. To borrow from Berit again:

>But you must admit the way Rowling writes, she opens
up for another way of defeating Voldemort than just doing it the
Voldemort way?

... And, at risk of making this a pointless post, I agree completely. 
I don't think JKR would spend however long - five years, if my memory 
serves me correctly, five years before publication - planning out a 
seven-book cycle that will end with just another battle and a "bang 
you're dead". I'm inclined to think that defeat will come through 
something unexpected, and is more likely to involve one of those 
things worse than death that Dumbledore refers to than death itself, 
and that this is likely to be a thing-worse-than-death that's 
personal to Voldemort. What this is likely to be I have no idea, but 
I don't think it's having your entrails Accio'd (not matter how cool 
the phrase "Accio entrails!" is.) :-)

It's one thing if Harry has to be the one to destroy Voldemort, but I 
don't like the idea that he has to become a cold-blooded killer in 
order to do so. He wouldn't allow Sirius and Lupin to kill Wormtail 
in PoA and I don't think he'll happily kill Voldemort either. I don't 
think he'll learn to be a nasty, mean person so he can effectively 
throw AK or the Cruciatus curse. I think when it comes down to it 
he'll win because he's good and he's not evil. What would be the 
point if Harry won, but in doing so had more or less become 
Voldemort? To go off on a tangent, one of the moments in OoP that 
really grabbed me was when Harry is kicking off in Dumbledore's 
office, and he shouts, "I don't want to be human!" (no books handy, 
apologies). At the end of the day, Tom Riddle chose not to be human, 
and I'm hoping Harry will choose to carry on being human.

Kneasy wants:

>Voldy's skin to slough off like lumpy, rancid yoghurt,
Eldritch screams, choked with blood,
Eyeballs that shrivel and smoke,
Guts all over the page, (eaten by Lupin in werewolf mode is a bonus)
Bones cracking,
Ribs splintering with the sound of a stepped-on cockroach,
An exploding head,
A fuming black heart splitting to leak smoking  ichor.

Martha:

OK, I admit, all that is pretty cool. Especially the "eaten by 
werewolf" bit. Is it OK if I have a feather boa but it's pink and 
glittery and I bought it in a toy shop and I just own it without 
actually waving it? :-)