7th Harry Potter Book

[Jaime]

[quote] Will Harry survive Rowling's final tale?

LONDON — Author J.K. Rowling said Monday two characters will die in the final installment of her boy wizard series, and she hinted Harry Potter might be among them.

"I can completely understand … the mentality of an author who thinks, 'Well, I'm going to kill them off because that means there can be no non-author-written sequels,' " Rowling said in a television interview.

"The final chapter is hidden away, although it's now changed very slightly. One character got a reprieve. But I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die. A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil here. They don't target extras do they? They go for the main characters. Well, I do."

Rowling said people are sometimes shocked to hear she wrote the end of the seventh book before she had a publisher for the first book in the series.[/quote]

[Didacus]

If this makes so much controversy, shouldn't the post be placed in the debate forum?

(see, controversy already. imagine that!)

[homeschoolmom]

How could characters die that she didn't intend to die? Who's driving that train?

[Sojourner]

Sometimes the story unfolds in ways you didn't foresee.


I saw something about this on the Today show this morning, and rolled my eyes. What, is J.K. not getting as much in royalties because it's been a year since the last book was out? Publicity stunt is all ... and it was on the news. Lemmings.

[homeschoolmom]

How could the story "unfold" in this way? She said she wrote the last one before the first one was published. She intended it to end however it does end.

[Sojourner]

Well, she had the ending planned, but then as she wrote the road to get to the ending took turns she didn't anticipate.

It sounds weird, I know, but when I've talked to authors about the writing process, as you write and develop the characters, they take on a "life" of their own ... as you get to know them, sometimes the choices you'd thought they would make don't make sense with the developing character, so the decision comes out differently than you'd originally anticipated.

[Tindomiel]

Yeah. They definitely do... it's weird. It's quite natural for a story to be pushed in a completely different direction than the author anticipated.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Tindomiel

[Sojourner]

This is way to serious a turn for this thread. Let's have some controversy!!

I'll start. I think Harry Potter is the greatest literary series written in the last 25 years.

[Tindomiel]

Hmm, let's see.... 25 years ago... 1981... That could actually be argued considering the quality of '80s era children's books.

[Sojourner]

you are not allowed to agree with me ... this is supposed to be [i]controversial[/i]

[azaelia]

[quote name='Sojourner' post='1013087' date='Jun 27 2006, 12:10 PM']
This is way to serious a turn for this thread. Let's have some controversy!!

I'll start. I think Harry Potter is the greatest literary series written in the last 25 years.
[/quote]
You're lucky Lord of the Rings was written in 1945.

[Sojourner]

Harry Potter is better than ...


nah, I just can't bring myself to say it. LOTR is way more awesome than Harry Potter.

[p0lar_bear]

I’ll start some controversy!


I think Harry is going to die. Why? Because he is a type of Christ. His birth was foretold by prophecy. He was raised by a surrogate father. He has a cousin slightly older than him. People recognized in his infancy that he was going to battle evil. He was saved from almost certain death in infancy by flight to another “world.” Still, he spend most of his life being treated as insignificant. He is the only one who can defeat evil in the form of Voldemort. He will do this, I suspect, through self-sacrifice.


Discuss

[Thy Geekdom Come]

My prediction:

Since the hero can only be either Harry or Neville, and we know that if a person who is not the subject of a prophecy touches the prophecy orb, they go insane, and Harry touched it, we know that one of two things will happen:

1. Harry will go insane.

2. Harry will not go insane.

Situation 1 is usually assumed not to be the case, since he has not yet gone mad, but no one ever said that the change happened right away, and there have been clues that Harry was losing his mind for some time. If he goes insane, it almost necessarily means that Neville is the hero.

If situation 2 is true, then Harry must be the hero, although he may still die.

I'm banking on situation 1. Harry Potter is a red herring meant to throw us off. He's a talented wizard, sure, but all the evils that come to him are brought about simply because people [i]think[/i] the prophecy is about him. I think Neville will save the day (we know that he had his grandfather's wand and when it broke, he had to get a new one suited to himself...and we know that he has good wizarding blood and natural talent, so once he gets the new one, well, I bet he becomes much better...and that makes sense...he's familiar enough that when he does rise up, people won't be like, "hey, who's this?" but he is a goofy enough character that people won't see it coming).

Edited June 27, 2006 by Raphael

[Guest JeffCR07]

Harry is going to die because Harry is the last horcrux.

No one actually saw what curse he cast on Harry (everyone just assumes that it was the killing curse). If the curse actually made him a horcrux, then that explains why he has the same powers and the link to Voldemort, and it explains why in the prophecy he "marked him as his equal." Plus, if you were the ultimate lord of evil darkness and you heard a prophecy saying that only this kid can kill you, what more ingenious thing could there be than putting part of your soul inside him. So even if he [i]does[/i] kill you, you'll come back. The only way for you to really die is if he kills you and dies in the process.

Tell me I'm wrong, [i]then[/i] we'll have a debate :