[HPforGrownups] Deaths in the Series

[Andy Mills]

No: HPFGUIDX 192161

On 27/06/2012 13:44, Bart Lidofsky wrote:
> Another post made me think about a general question for discussion: the
> many deaths in the Harry Potter series, onstage and offstage.
>
> Doing this with numbered questions (like the listelves)....
>
> 1) JKR had a knack for getting you to care about a character, then
> killing the character off (most blatantly with Cedric, but certainly
> with others). Which character's death upset you the most (and why)?
>

AJM:

I think the death that upset me most was Dobby.  Like many others here, 
when he was first introduced I found him rather annoying but as the 
books went on he became less so and was always there to help Harry when 
he most needed help.  The way he died, rescuing Harry and his friends, 
was just so sad.

> 2) Some deaths were pretty much required for the plot to go on (most
> notably, the death of Harry Potter's parents). Some were a little more
> subtle. What were some of the deaths you considered to be necessary for
> the story (and, of course, why)?
>

AJM:

Difficult one.  I always thought Dumbledore would die at some point, 
although I thought it would probably be in the last book.  It's 
difficult though to say whether most of the deaths were actually 
necessary for the story.  Yes, the story would have been different in 
some places if the deaths hadn't taken place, but whether or not the 
deaths were absolutely necessary to the story is a difficult question to 
answer.


> 3) And, of course, because people do die in wars, some of the deaths
> were pretty much gratuitous. But it can be argued that JKR went
> overboard in some cases, killing characters just for the sake of adding
> to the death tolls. Which character's death do you consider to be the
> most gratuitous (and, most importantly, why?).
>

AJM:

I really don't think both Lupin and Tonks need to have died, one could 
have survived.  I think the only reason she did that was to mirror what 
happened to Harry.  Killing both of them meant that Teddy was in a 
similar situation to Harry, except of course he didn't have to go and 
live with a horrible family of muggles.

AJM