[HPforGrownups] Unresolved things in the books WAS: Re: LV's bigger plan LONG

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 166479

 Alla:
>
> I was not shocked that DA was dropped per se, it did seem sort of to
> be resolved, but on the other hand I thought it would be logical
> path to the unity of the houses, sort of. So, from that POV I was
> surprised that DA was dropped, yes. I thought it would be a plot
> device to move to the unity of the houses, which is a theme that she
> seems to be interested in IMO.
>
> Do you know what I mean? I certainly did not expect the battles in
> HBP, Harry getting extensive military training with DA or something
> like that. Despite me liking that stuff in fanfic, I do not see JKR
> being interested in that IMO of course. I think that all Harry's
> magic that matters is heavily emotions oriented, people oriented,
> etc.
>
> But yes, I did wonder why DA did not show up to promote the
> understanding between Houses. I guess she plans something different
> for that.

Magpie:
I do see what you mean--and we were, I think, both having the same ideas 
about the theme. Obviously joining the houses is important, and the DA 
seemed like the way to that. So we both saw that but weren't totally 
surprised when it turned out the DA wasn't going to continue. We haven't 
lost the theme, it's just that now it's going to happen a different way.

>> Magpie:
>> I may have not been clear what I even meant by that vague
> statement.:-) It's
>> hard to put into words, but Sydney wrote it out wonderfully in her
> post
>> about villains. Voldemort does certainly have strategies that are
> there for
>> Harry to deal with, but his plans seem to me to be pretty
> straightforward
>> and symbolic, fitting him as a "monster" villain.
>
> Alla:
>
> I vaguely remember Sydney's post, but do you basically mean that
> Voldemort's strategies are not very rational and mainly show his
> Evil overlordness? Or do you mean something different? Do you mean
> that Voldemort is incapable of rational strategizing at all?
>
> Could you please clarify more? Thanks.

Magpie:
I guess what I was saying was that LV's plans seem to be mostly about what 
will effect the characters we know. JKR knows that as an Evil Overlord he 
has to be doing other stuff and we hear that in the books, but it's just 
vague and undefined. He's doing stuff with the werewolves and the giants and 
the goblins, causing hurricanes, having people murdered and captured. But 
the plans that matter in terms of the plot are very straightforward, 
involving very few people that we care about.

PS/SS=steal the Philosopher's Stone to be immortal.
GoF=Get Harry to the Graveyard to kill him and use his blood to bring 
himself back to life.
OotP=Trick Harry to the MoM to get the Prophecy saying how to kill Harry.

CoS and HBP are both Malfoy books, which involve Voldemort but aren't about 
Voldemort pursuing his greater agenda, but:

CoS=Lucius gives Ginny the Diary to open the CoS and discredit Arthur.
HBP=Voldemort gives Draco the task of killing Dumbledore as punishment for 
Lucius.

We also know Voldemort has split his soul and hidden the pieces in Hogwarts 
relics, each of which is hidden in a place that means something to him.

The kinds of plans we don't have with complicated strategy that's really 
like a war story. There's vague allusions to that sort of stuff (Snape's 
telling us which way the DEs are being ordered to move, they're making 
alliances with giants, Lupin's spying on the werewolves) but the central 
stories in the books so far have always been very clear cut. The missions 
don't seem to have multiple uses and mutiple inspirations (though the 
methods are often overcomplicated and take a long time), and they don't seem 
to rely on Voldemort having all the many things we see Harry using in canon 
at his disposal (for instance, assuming that he'll know about various 
tunnels or tricks--certainly it stands to reason he could know about lots of 
stuff, but his plans just aren't usually that complicated).

In the seventh book we may need more traditional warcraft for all these 
other things we've heard of to come to something, or else it might still be 
background with the main story being Harry tracking down Horcruxes and 
destroying them while Voldemort is either assumed to be wreaking havoc or 
else trying to do some other single-minded thing like kill Harry. (Can you 
tell I can't even imagine how the last book will go?)

-m