The Deathly Hallows: Morality of Mythical Objects

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 177406

> Prep0strus:
> It also doesn't make the fable itself work that well for me - I 
don't
> like the inconsistency of one gift being a trick that doesn't work,
> one working until you lose it through your own flaws, and one 
working
> perfectly.

zgirnius:
I think that Death did not deliberately fail to deliver a working 
device with the Stone. Rather, what the brother asked for is 
*impossible*. The dead who are not ghosts have moved on to 
their 'next great adventure' and cannot truly be called back, 
certainly not to live life again. The Stone brought a shade of the 
brother's fiancee back, but she was not happy, and could not make him 
happy, but this was his fault for requesting the impossible.

Harry's use was different (as explained in "The Forest Again"). He 
did not call his dead back to drag them around for him for the 
indefinite future, he called them back for just a moment, as he 
prepared to join them, which is why it 'worked' well enough for him.

> Prep0strus:
> But the first brother doesn’t try to defeat death.  

zgirnius:
But he does. He thinks, with the Elder Wand, he cannot be killed. 
Oops.

>Prep0strus:
>And the third
> brother DOES try to defeat death with it â€" and he does.

zgirnius:
I disagree, since I see the setup differently. I would say Death 
tried to cheat all three brothers. They escaped him fair and square 
in the river, and there he was trying to entrap them into dying early 
after all. He succeeded with the first two, the third was too clever 
for him (as the third brother always is, in these tales). Since death 
was inappropriately targeting him (rather than allowing his fate to 
play out as it should) he requested an artifact that would prevent 
Death's further interference. Yet when his time truly came, he did 
not try to dodge death. He was not cheating death, he was merely 
forcing him to play fair.