Fred and George and Karma (Was: Harry as Frodo or not?)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 176838

Magpie:
> Last I looked, it wasn't karmic at all. Fred dies a hero killed by DEs 
> and George loses his brothers and an ear to same. For it to come 
> across as karma it has to be tied to their own actions and be ironic 
> in some way. It's not--they're just heroes. What they did to Montague 
> is not considered a bad thing at all as far as I can see. Even 
> everything that happened in HBP is dealt with with an off-hand, "Have 
> to talk to the Twins about who they're selling their products too." 
> Now that the series is over even that reads like a plot point, not a 
> lesson.

Carol responds:
Fred dies rather pointlessly, killed by a falling wall. It's poignant
that he dies just after he's made up with Percy and ironic that he
dies just as Percy has made what may be his first-ever joke.

BTW, I'm sure I read a post recently which suggested that Percy
accidentally killed Fred and suffered a lifetime of remorse, but
almost the only posts I can find on the subject of Fred and Percy are
mine, and I definitely don't hold that view!

Certainly, there's nothing karmic in Fred's death (if JKR were after
karmic retribution for the Weasleys, surely it would have been Percy
who died). I would have expected Fred and George to be together, maybe
even to die together fighting like heroes (cf. their uncles, Fabian
and Gideon Prewett). Instead, Fred's death is even more sudden and
unexpected and random than Sirius Black's. At least *he* was fighting
a Death Eater and is sent through the Veil by her spell (and he's
recklessly fighting on the dais of the Veil and taunting his
opponent). Fred has just finished Stunning a DE and Percy has just hit
Pius Thicknesse with a strange spell that makes him resemble a sea
urchin. Percy jokes that he's resigning, Fred "look[s] at him with
"glee" and remarks appreciatively that "Perce" is joking, and then,
just "when danger seem[s] temporarily at bay," the wall falls, killing
only Fred, who dies "with the ghost of his laugh still etched upon his
face" (DH Am. ed. 637). The brother who, until just hours before, had
been at odds with the whole family, and especially the Twins, throws
himself across Fred's body to shield it from further harm.

It's almost unbearably sad and ironic, and I don't even like Fred. His
death, like Cedric's and Black's, is completely unexpected. Moreover,
he's not even murdered; his death is unrelated to anything that he's
doing. He's merely laughing at a joke made by his straitlaced brother
when a wall falls on him.

Carol, who thinks that JKR wanted Fred to, quite literally, die laughing