CHAPDISC: DH36, THE FLAW IN THE PLAN

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185282

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
>  
> > Carol:
> > I disagree. The wand performed perfectly well, killing a lot of
> people and creating at least one piece of spectacular magic, Nagini's
> bubble. LV has no complaints about it--doesn't even think about it's
> not performing for him--until that conversation with Snape. You may
> find it convincing. I don't. 
> 
> Pippin:
> We do learn that a new wand can take some breaking in. That accounts
> for  Voldemort not expecting the wand to adapt to him immediately. 
> 
> Carol
> > I don't think we're going to convince each other here. I find no
> > grounds--none--for Voldemort's statement that the Elder Wand isn't
> > working as well as he expected. It does everything he asks of it.
> 
> Pippin:
> We don't know that, because we don't know everything that he's asked
> of it.  He can only do his usual magic, extraordinary as that is
> compared to what other wizards can do. He expects something more
> spectacular than that, not only because he's insane (although of
> course he is) but because that is what the Elder Wand is supposed to
> be able to provide and because he *needs* that power, or did when he
> went in search of it. 

Carol responds:

If he had attempted some extraordinary magic, say Nagini's bubble, and
the wand had failed him, that would be one thing. But we never see it
fail him. We never see him doubting its performance. And how can you
go beyond extraordinary? I just need evidence that the wand failed him
in some way, that he sensed it resisting him or being insufficiently
powerful. And it's not there.

> Pippin:
> It establishes that Voldemort knows Elder Wand won't work properly
> against its true master, and ensures that Harry (and the reader) know
> this also, which is essential for the denouement. 

Carol:
Exactly. It's a plot device. But that doesn't mean it's a successful
one because there's no evidence of the wand failing him in any way,
shape, or form. He says it performs the same extraordinary magic as
his other wand, but that wand is perfectly suited to him. It would,
IMO, be impossible for the Elder Wand to exceed the wand that created
the Horcruxes and the protections on the locket Horcrux. Yet Voldie
says it does just as well. He has the wand for at least a month and it
performs perfectly from the start. No complaints from him--until it's
time for JKR to kill off Snape--and, as you say, establish that
Voldemort has figured out (without cause or evidence) that he's not
the master of the wand.

I don't buy it.
> 
> Using Nagini also allows Snape to die like a hero, literally :
> 
> "He rushed upon the hero * where his chance was fit,
> Hot and battle-ugly* All the neck he bit
> With his bitter fang-teeth* To death the Geat was hurt,
> Bloodied o'er with his own gore,* in welling wave and spurt..."
> --Beowulf XXXVI
> 
> And then, like Beowulf, Snape can survive just long enough to impart a
> last message to a  young man who wasn't supposed to be there.

Carol:

Yes, but that's beside the point. There's no proof, no evidence, no
indication, no hint that the wand isn't working for Voldie up until
it's time for Snape to die in that horrible yet spectacular way.

And again, whether JKR had Beowulf in mind or not, she needed Snape to
die in a way that did not involve an AK. Enter Nagini, protected by
the bubble, and Snape distracted by the necessity to get the message
to Harry and the fear that it's too late. All very dramatic, and
certainly the feat of conjuring the memories wandlessly as he's dying
is spectacular. It's just that the Elder Wand *has not* failed
Voldemort and he has no reason, not even the wrong reason of thinking
that Snape is the master of the wand, for murdering him. Nothing but
JKR's need to have him struck before Harry's eyes so that he can feel
shock and horror and stare for a moment into the dying Snape's eyes in
preparation for the excursion into the Pensieve.

If we saw the wand failing Voldemort, saw him struggling with it or
complaining that it wasn't performing for him, if he had any grounds
for his complaint, I wouldn't be protesting the scene. It's just that
the evidence isn't there. The wand acts exactly as it would if he were
really his master (it probably sensed in him a kindred spirit) up till
the point when it learned that Harry was its true master. At that
point, it probably saw Harry as the stronger or the two--after all,
Voldemort had failed to kill him three times. Had Harry not spoken,
the wand might well have accepted Voldemort and killed Harry--or at
least the AK would not have rebounded onto LV and we'd have had a
stalemate again. (Better to use the yew wand against Draco's. *It*
would willingly have killed Harry.)

Carol, still unconvinced