JKR does a complete reversal in book 7 on the fidelus charm and how it works. This is NOT an inconsistency within the books as much as an inconsistency with her explanation on her website which her many fans relied on for information between books. On her websites she says:
Result of F.A.Q. Poll
(SPOILER WARNING)
What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?
I was surprised that this question won, because it is not the one that I'd have voted for… but hey, if this is what you want to know, this is what you want to know!
When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.
Just in case you have forgotten exactly how the Fidelius Charm works, it is
"an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information.
from JK Rowling FAQ
IS this how the fidelus Charm is depicted as working in book 7? No. Suddenly with the death of the secret keeper, Dumbledore, every person who previously knew the secret became able to reveal the secret. There suddenly became multiple secret keepers any of which could reveal the secret. Why the reversal?
And why did Fred have to die near the end during a lull of the battle? How did his death further the plot? Especially in such a manner? Having kept all of the Weasleys alive until then, was it really necessary to have one of the twins die? Was that required to have Ron go beserk or for Molly to duel Bellatrix? It's the only death I really question other than I wish Harry's owl Hedwig hadn't died. Dobby's death at least served a purpose.
But once again, the deaths were largely one sided until the end. How is it that death eaters never died during the battles with Order of the Phoenix members? Was it because the Order was not seeking to kill, just disarm? Even during the final battle at Hogwarts? And once disarmed and disabled, why were they constantly able to escape and resume fighting?
Having started the article negative, let me say JK Rowling has achieved a lot. Writing a 7 book series with hundreds of characters and not having a lot of inconsistencies is remarkable. This is especially true since book 1 was indeed her first book. I just got the impression in reading book 7 that she finally realized that she had too many loose ends that should be closed but did not know how to close them and stay consistent. How to explain the connection between Voldemort and Harry without it conflicting with the "Voldemort can not touch Harry" protection established in Book 1 and Book 5?
Other loose ends and inconsistencies:
How did Voldemort get his wand back after being Vanquished in book 1? (She never explains this). There were a lot of questions by fans before the book about HOW Hagrid was able to get Harry in the first book. If the location was protected by a fidelus charm, then how was Hagrid able to go to Godric's Hollow and retrieve the baby? Obviously Pettigrew the Secret Keeper did not reveal the secret since no one but James, Lily and Sirius knew James had switched to him as the secret keeper. So how did Hagrid find Harry in book 1? And how did Dumbledore and all of the others suddenly know Voldemort had Vanquished or that Harry had survived? Why did it take so long for Hagrid to get Harry from Godric's Hollow to Privet Drive? What did James and Lily do for a living? Why did Snape who supposedly loved Lily treat her son like trash? Just because he resembled his father James? Is that how you would treat the child of someone you truly cared about? So many questions remain.
Thank you JK Rowling for giving us the World of Harry Potter. Because of you, many children today enjoy reading who otherwise probably would have gone through life not reading books for enjoyment. Maybe we as fans came to expect too much from you. Maybe it is our higher expectations that have left us feeling disappointed rather than your ending. Did we expect too much? Sort of like Harry being disappointed with Dumbledore because he had not lived up to how Harry viewed him. There were flaws in his past. Maybe after the dust has settled, the disappointed will likewise settle.
4 comments:
You've worded it very accurately Tim.
I haven't been checking the comm. on orkut for some time now as i thought perhaps I'd been giving the books too much thought...squeezing the lemon sour, if you know what I mean. I wanted to keep the facts right and not let my expectations from Jo get the better of me.
But I'm afraid, being a fan of hers like so many others, I 'm disappointed too. The book SEEMED to be done in haste. I had a ebook (coutesy "Harry Potter for Adults" on orkut) and quite often I thought perhaps i'd got a fake one. I asked my friends several times whether theirs' matched mine( not many co-operated..they hadnt read as much i had coz they bought the book today.), and i wasn't convinced. I hoped it was a fanfic, undoubtedly a damn good one though. Searched wikipedia in the end, which confirmed that it was. It was predictable...but thats wasn't the dampner at all.
Harry being a horcrux...what about the horcrux making spell? (and ur reasons too)...Slughorn having minimal role. Horcrux hunting very UNinformative and murky.Ron imitating parseltongue , which actually worked!! losta tings didn't fit into the puzzle still.
Shambo
Yes until book 7 I thought JK Rowling did an excellent job of having everything she wrote "fit". It all more or less made sense with everything else she hd written. NOT predictable by any means but nothing she wrote was inconsistent or illogical. Until book 7. It seemed she was in a rush to finish and maybe some ideas she had 10 years ago no longer fit with the way the books had evolved. It does seem she rushed through parts of book 7 and did not think everything through as she had in the past. Seemed like she was tired and just wanted to get it over.
"Why did Snape who supposedly loved Lily treat her son like trash? Just because he resembled his father James? Is that how you would treat the child of someone you truly cared about?"
I liked the book Tim. There were inconsistencies, but the better word would be a lack of understanding of her magical rules and her inability to express those rules through her book, she left it to the reader to assume an explanation. Psychology gives us a good explanation of the overwhelming disappointment. It was the last book and we all read it in full of knowledge of that fact. I was dissapointed that the book should even finish. That bitterness remains!
Finally, lets face it! We have ripped her books apart from head to toe for clues to what comes next. It was a monumental task for her to juggle all those plot lines and keep them in place. I think she did a great job of it. Because I sincerely feel that she never thought that her book would go beyond the first, she subtly arranged the plot only when she was confident after its wide appreciation and had decided that this was the final line of events and that she would stick with it, no matter what the temptation. I wonder if we would appreciate this book more if we hadn't delved into the intricacies with the insane urge to link logic with magic!
I am surprised and not disappointed here that she did not fulfill her promise of explaining all those things that she had promised she would explain? What could have led her to go back on her promise? Was this story hijacked by greater vested interests? Maybe not. But then what explains this bizzareness?
Two things that left me asking were , that creature whom Dumbledore said was beyond help! It was probably that part of Voldemort that stuck with Harry's soul. But it was bearing the indelible mark of torture. Torture that Harry's soul inflicted upon it, torture of love! What should become of it? Was it dead? What was happening to Harry at this time? Why like Dumbledore could she not clearly explain?
Another was the last line of the book(the epilogue). I dont understand what she means by it? But if you want to believe that parts were left unexplained, then what could be the only possible answer for it? Is there another book in the making?
Coming back to the comment in quotes at the beginning about Severus Snape. Maybe not you or me or anyone but Snape would!
Thanks for the comment.
I wasn't that concerned about Snape. I always maintained that he could have liked Lily more than she liked him. I just found the psychology of the Snape - Harry relationship contrary to what I would expect in that situation.
I was more disappointed in the lack of precision and how things no longer fit together. She broke with her historical pattern of everything making sense from a logic standpoint whether that was her intention or not. Harry being a horcrux didn't fit. And she changed the way a fidelus charm worked -- that suggests she was having a hard time getting her story to work and tampered with her own rules.
Overall I still rate her books high, but I think the last book was not up to the standards she created. It is a good book, but I was expecting great!
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