Cedric, Snape and carma was re: Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 190543

 
> Alla:
> 
> Except to me the HUGE difference is that Cedric did not have any choice in the matter, not a real choice. Everything was prearranged, so of course anybody who would have taken the cup would have suffered the same fate. Snape had a choice, a very real one IMO.

Pippin:
See, I can agree with most of  your post except this, because to me Cedric's choices and Snape's are eerily similar. Cedric chose to enter the Tri-wizard Tournament. He knew he'd be tested to the limits of his bravery, knowledge and skill. He was warned he'd have to cope with danger.  Cedric knew  he could expect to find monsters in the maze, maybe even the deadliest kind. He'd already had to face a dragon. 

But he was expecting a challenge, not a deathtrap. There wasn't supposed to be anything in there so lethal that he couldn't defeat it, or at least get away.  The rules of the tournament compelled him to attempt the task; he was not compelled to finish it. He was supposed to be able to summon aid if he chose to, though he would forfeit his chance to win. 

Cedric knew the rules were getting bent here and there, but he still didn't think there was anyone  at Hogwarts so careless of his life that they would arrange for  him, or anyone who took the Cup, to face a known killer with no chance of escape. 

Do you see what I am getting at here? Snape had no more reason to think he would find himself in a deathtrap if he took up Sirius's challenge than Cedric had to think that the Cup was booby-trapped, because who at Hogwarts would do something like that?  

> Alla:
> 
> Goodness, no, not a reward, a carmic payback, for tormenting James's son for one of many James' offenses amongst them being saving him IMO.

Pippin:
I think the idea of carma breaks down in the stories. We all want to see goodness rewarded and evil punished, and we're glad when it happens. But it doesn't seem like it's the law of JKR's universe. When it comes to tormenting Harry, Umbridge and the Dursleys are far worse, and nothing so terrible happens to them. 

 It seems like Harry wants to think the world works that way, and slowly discovers that it doesn't. He wouldn't have tried to save Voldemort if he believed in payback. 

Characters are often, though not always,  undone by their own evil, but there's a natural explanation rather than a metaphysical one. Evil, like every other obsession, makes them stupid. It makes them overlook or explain away what ought to be obvious, self-evident facts.

Pippin