The Elder wand -- Book vs movie

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 192180

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Charla Mason" <vikingwoman at ...> wrote:
>
> Hi Group,
> I have read the books and watched the movies many times..  And for
> the most part I think the movies captured the books very well except
> the last movie.
> 
> In the books Harry repaired his broken wand and restored the elder
> wand with Dumbledore.
> 
> Why in the movie did they have Harry break the Elder wand and throw
> it away??
> 
> ...
> 
>     Charla

bboyminn:

I have no problem with Harry not keeping the Elder Wand, it was the right and noble thing to do. What I have a problem with is Harry not using the Elder Wand to restore his own Phoenix Feather Wand. 

In the book that made sense, Wizard develop a kinship with their wands, it becomes a natural part of them. We see how devastated Harry was when is Phoenix Wand broke.  

In that last scene on the bridge, it would have only take a second to pull his own wand from his pocket and repair it then break the Elder Wand and dispose of it. 

In the books, the Elder Wand was restored to Dumbledore's tomb, or so it would seem, but Voldemort had no trouble breaking into Dumbledore's tomb, and even with enhance security, it could be broken into again. Though very few people actually know that Dumbledore's wand was indeed the Elder Wand, though any astute person would have probably suspected it. 

So, I thought Harry should have used his own wand to pulverize or somehow magically break the Elder Wand before returning it to Dumbledore's tomb. Once magically broken, it would have been next to impossible to restore the Elder Wand to its true former power. 

Off on a tangent, I was considering writing a fan fiction in which, through a complex series of circumstance, Harry and Ron decide to write a series of books chronicling their adventures at Hogwarts. But not being good writes, they manage to find a muggle Ghost Writer who happens to have a cousin who is a wizard. The Ghost Writer's name would be "J.K. ... oh just call me Jo, everyone does". And of course the series of 7 books chronicling each year at Hogwarts become both Muggle and Wizard best seller. 

Why bring this up, as it seems unrelated to the subject at hand? Well it force me to consider what Harry and Ron would say about the Elder Wand. Would they lie about what they had done with it, or would they tell the truth, and accept the consequences of everyone knowing Dumbledore' Tomb contain the most powerful wand every made. Or would they come up with a half-truth/half-lie version of event. So, I have given this some thought. I think in the end, I was leaning toward half-truth/half-lie. 

PS: re: this unwritten story. I just thought is was a fun idea in an alternate universe, if it had actually been Harry/Ron/Hermione who wrote the books, but that they used J.K.Rowling as a front person/author for the books in the Muggle world. 

Again, having it become known by even a small group of people would put Dumbledore's Tomb and the Elder Wand at risk. So, I don't see this as a very satisfying disposition in the books, and I find the Movie version even less satisfying in that it did not deal with Harry's original Phoenix Wand.

So, in the movies and books, I'm satisifed that Harry did not keep the Elder Wand, but I did not I find the books satisfying in simply placing the fully functional Elder Wand in Dumbledore's Tomb. 

I did like the movies in that Harry destroyed the Elder Wand, though I felt it should have been done magically to assure it could never be restored, and throwing it into that deep gorge seems satisfactory. Very very unlikely that anyone could have found both pieces, so it seems a reasonably safe. 

So, I can find things to criticize in both versions. 

Steve/bboyminn