Role of ESE in Hero's Quest (was:Re: Was HPB's ending BANG-y?...)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 147645

> Neri:
> I believe the proper term would be "plot coupons", as defined in the
> highly acclaimed (and highly amusing) 1986 assay by Nick Lowe, "The
> Well-Tempered Plot Device"
> http://www.ansible.co.uk/Ansible/plotdev.html
> 
> One of the main reasons I'm hoping for something like Horcrux!Harry is
> that it will prevent the Horcruxes from being standard plot coupons,
> and Book 7 from being a standard collect-the-coupons quest.
> 

Pippin:
What makes a substandard quest story laughable is the contrast between the
marvelous storied objects and the pedestrian characters sent in search of
them. Since JKR's characters are not pedestrian I see no reason to worry
about the plot on that score. But as for  storied objects themselves,
of course they are of no genuine importance -- how can they be? Fabulous
treasures are fabulous only until they have been found. Then they are
mere possessions,  worth no more than someone is willing to pay for them.

But that sparks an idea. Suppose three of the four remaining horcruxes
are destroyed. The last one will be an item of interest to anyone 
who wants to have Voldemort over a barrel. The  situation simply
begs  for an ESE character to take advantage of it. Aid Harry until three
of the horcruxes are destroyed, then stop him from destroying the last
one because it would make such a lovely bargaining chip. 

Not to say the horcruxes won't have symbolic value. I think, though 
JKR has done her best to cloud the issue, that the 
four missing horcruxes correspond to the four houses, and Harry's
quest to find and destroy them will be intertwined with Ron and Hermione's
quest to unite the Houses (as Head Boy and Head Girl.) 

I certainly don't expect a straightforward thriller, not after six
books of multi-layered, multi-genre preparation, nor do I 
expect HP7 to be a sort of video game script in which Harry
blows through a series of magical obstacles, grabs all four
horcruxes, turns them into a superweapon and blows Voldemort
away.

Pippin