Prophecies and Chosen Ones

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 186803

Zara:
I cannot address how Riordan used a prophecy as I have not read his series. But
Rowling did try to fool us and throw in a twist. Did you know Harry was not
going to die? The Prophecy, after all, does not state that Harry is the one who
WILL defeat Voldemort, just that he has the power to do so. Perhaps it was by
letting Voldemort kill him, his Zfinal Horcrux. ;-)

It did not fool me, but I did not worry much about the Prophecy and it was not
the source of my certainty.

Alla:

No, of course I was not sure that Harry was not going to die, as I mentioned before this was one of the most burning questions for me at the end. But this was to be the one regardless of whether prophecy was introduced or not, you know? So I guess I cannot really consider it a prophecy twist.  I mean, Voldemort was trying to kill Harry several times, so I would have been nervous if he can make it anyway.


Pippin:
The thing is, in the Potterverse, living means dying at the appropriate time,
which Harry cannot do once Voldemort has taken his blood, and Voldemort cannot
do because of the horcruxes. Fudge says that according to Dumbledore, Voldemort
can't really be alive if he can't die.

People seem to think this is too tricky or perhaps too sentimental about death,
but I really think this is what JKR expects us to grasp, and to hope, if not to
believe: that death at the right time is not a catastrophe but a friend to be
welcomed and expected, and only a temporary separation from those we love. Sorry
to be sticky, but that's what I get from canon. <SNIP>


Alla:

Eh, sure, I do agree with you that this turned to be a major theme in canon, what you said about death in the appropriate time being not a catastrophe, but a friend to be welcome and expected, etc, etc.

But people were talking that neither can live while the other survives makes no sense to them and I do agree with Montavilla that it does not work as to Voldemort to me either.

You seem to be saying that the wording of the prophecy is some sort of code, where "neither can live" actually means "neither can die"?

If that's what you mean and I do agree that this way it works well enough, then I am sorry, but to me it is cheating. To me Prophecy must make sense at the end **exactly as it is written**, no matter how ambiguous it was when we just read it, you know? I do not know why the heck author would expect me to put the opposite word in there and say AHA, now it makes sense.

Did I misunderstand your argument Pippin?

Alla