Snipping Puppetmaster!DD

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Sean Dwyer <ewe2 at a...> wrote:
> 
> Giving a teenage witch a Time Turner didn't exactly strike me as being the
> kind of prudence MacGonagal usually displays...hmmm, you think? The whole Time
> Turner thing (and I know you hate the movies, but there is a use for them)
> became particularly disturbing to me as portrayed in the PoA movie; especially
> as it seems a deliberate hint that DD is, shall we say, a little more
> _tricksy_ than we supposed (great big whopping hint IMHO).
>

Kneasy:
DD? Tricksy? Straight as a corkscrew, that bloke.
You're probably right about MM; would she hand out things like TTs without
consulting DD? I doubt it, especially as the Ministry was involved in granting
permission.

See, the big thing about the movies (besides how awful the last one was) is
that we can't be certain if any hints, clues, pointers or whatever are real or
are the result of fans scouring the celluloid and grasping at straws - or
shadows, to make the allusion more apposite. Does anyone besides Jo know
how the story progresses? No, I don't think so. Is it likely that she sidled up
to whoever-it-was and whispered "Make DD more ambiguous, he was too 
nice in the last one"? Just possible I suppose, though I got the impression
that the whole ersatz-gothic thing was the sole responsibility of some smart
bugger being too clever by three-quarters. Could be wrong but it's the
result of fevered imaginings in a back room at Warners, is my bet. "Oh,
there's a Time-turner! Let's have a bloody great clockwork whatsit to ram 
home the plot point!" 

Now you and I may have drawn certain conclusions about DD, so might the
producer, or the scriptwriter, or there might have been a  nudge and a wink 
from herself - or it may be part of the overall atmospheric ambience 
considered as appropriate to this cinematic folderol and therefore totally
coincidental. We can't tell. That's why it ain't canon, so far as I'm concerned. 
 
> 
> Yeah the whole 'we are our choices' thing. Strange that the whole WW
> socio-political backdrop has an oddly Zoroastrian cast to it. That's right,
> the forces of light vs the forces of dark. Except under that theme, there is
> no choice, it's been preordained. The MoM scenes in OotP were another nod to
> this split between the goodies and the baddies, the ragnarök to come. So is
> JKR attempting the incredible feat of reconciling Northern and Mid-Eastern
> myth? Or are we going for the Old Testament/New Testament split, that was then
> but this is now, chill out dudes theme? Doesn't the idea of all magical beings
> living together in peace and hermione strike anyone here as a tad gauché?
> 

Kneasy:
Hum. Duality and preordination. And choices.
Choices not only define us, they reveal us, reflections of our true nature. 
In this sense DD's 'choices' would not conflict with predestination. Rather they
would be a confirmation of what we are. And if we act according to our nature,
there really is little choice, in the moral/ethical field anyway. 

Ragnarok would make for an entertaining climax. The old order goes down
in flames, a new beginning. Is there an equivalent in ME mythology, where
*all* the gods die? (Yes, Balder comes back, but he was dead before the
final battle.) Elimination of magic from the world would be the preferred
metaphor, probably.

> 
> Then again it could be the 'why was I chosen?', 'my life appears to be
> controlled by a world I increasingly understand and increasingly dislike'
> kinds of syndrome :)
> 

Kneasy:
The ingratitude of the wretch!
He's gonna be even more famous, an epic hero. 
The sticky end is just to balance the deal.
As if the world is or should be organised to suit his convenience.
Tell him to stop moaning and get on with it.