"All was Well"

[erastes]

I consider that, in years to come, this particular phrase will be discussed and dissected by people more educated than I, and will (if Potterfiction stays as popular) be considered to be one of the greatest literary lies ever. For me it ranks along with "All animals are created equal" and will - just as that phrase was shown to be a nonsense -lose

Comments

[erastes]

Completely - the whole Goblin war thing is "laughed off" as an opportunity for Ron and Harry to cheat at school and to fall asleep in class - and for Ron to pass off some of the most bloody history with something like "oh they are all called Ig and Ug" (paraphrased)

I don't think the Goblins would be too pleased at what's being taught to kids.

I should have expounded on the facts about Hogwarts, how the kids aren't taught the basics such as maths, english, foriegn languages and Muggle Studies should be mandatory to NEWT.

[gehayi]

I'd also like Muggle Studies to be taught by, y'know, MUGGLES. People who actually know the culture, rather than outsiders who look at it as if it were caused by some rare bacteria

[lonewolf_eburg]

Re: "All was well" balooney

[erastes]

That's what I find hilarious about her, the way she gets called on this stuff, panics, and then tries to retcon - which just does nothing except to muddy the canon even more

[dementedsiren]

What do you want to bet that in a decade (or less if we're "lucky") she'll pull a George Lucas and realize a "special edition" that just happens to fix up everything. Bah - authorial ownership or not, authors need to take responsibility for what they write - when it's all in their head, then fine, they can retcon and spin stories around it all they like. However, once it's out in the world, being read and intepreted and taken to heart, it has to stand on its own.

[mary_j_59]

Yes, the only way that horrible sentence makes sense to me is as a statement of hubris, or of black irony. Honestly, what I got out of the series - and what I was hoping for at the end - is this: Magic is not natural to humans and they should not have it. Let the other magical brethren deal with their own world and their own lives in their own way! Human beings are not capable of handling that kind of power without becoming thoroughly corrupt, so they shouldn't have to deal with it. I was fully expecting Severus Snape to survive, but lose his magic due to his injuries (and this would *not* be a punishment, but a reward! Magic certainly did him no favors) and I thought the same might happen to Harry. Seriously, I would have been pleased if the series had ended with the end of magic for humans

[erastes]

I hope to god that she doesn't delve in this world again, but I fear that there's very very little chance of that.

You put it very well - humans are incapable of managing the power they have been gifted with (Goblins and Elves seem to have it better, even if somehow along the line, Elves got enslaved)

And yes - wouldn't it be good if it had been black irony? Although I wouldn't put it past her for her to actually interpret her own writing as such.

[gehayi]

She really DOES mean all is well. Take a look

[solar_type_star]

I think it really becomes clear with those statements that "all was well" is a something written exclusively for Harry, or from Harry's POV (like the whole series -she hasn't been able to let go of that even at the very end of the series). I guess the Epilogue had such a loose 3rd person subjective POV that it was natural to assume that it was a general statement. But JKR was still inside Harry's head, thinking about Harry and what relates to him

[minkhollow]

I think one of the biggest things that irks me about the Crapilogue is that, from all the interviews, JKR clearly had more interesting information in mind. She's spouted off a few times about how the Trio and everyone else who survived the Voldiewar have Changed Things For The Better.
And, according to gehayi, a nine-year-old girl called her out on the fact that she didn't write down any of the interesting information.
We got the Married With Children epilogue, not the 'we're gonna change the world, Marty' epilogue. And considering no one seems to have changed much after the Grindelwald business (which, admittedly, didn't affect Britain as much as the continent... but still), and no one took the initiative the first time they all thought Moldyshorts was dead, we needed to see how the survivors of the second war took the new information and made the world a better place with it. The Trio in particular has no excuse - Hermione's house-elf activism, their experiences with Sirius and Lupin having to deal with the Ministry's incompetence,

[lovefromgirl]

I wonder why the Hat hasn't gone on strike? Surely it's due some retirement benefits, at the very least. It really ought to start mis-sorting people just for kicks.

[guardians_song]

I have a (somewhat cracky) plot bunny where Dumbledore was getting himself reincarnated years after his death, as he felt the WW couldn't manage without him. Unfortunately, he ran afoul of the Judges of Reincarnation, as the spirits of the children with broken magic (COME ON. Ariana CANNOT be the only one - Neville's a borderline case, at least!) had stormed some of the structures of the afterlife (since, no matter if JKR was intending to be ironic or not, she DOES write Magic As Might, and those with broken magic ARE freaking strong...) and temporarily taken some areas over. Why? "Insane children with power" is the simplest explanation, "eventually planning to tear the veil so that they can come back to life and take their revenge out of the WW's hide" is another... :P

[lovefromgirl]

That? That I would so read. :-)

[smurasaki]

Let's not forget the Muggles, who seem to rate somewhat lower than other magical creatures on the Wizarding World's importance scale. The question of normal humans' place is never even raised by our heroes (if we can call them that), and, in fact, one of them used magic to cheat on his driving test. If the wizards are hiding their existence because they're afraid of Muggles (which actually doesn't fit very well with the fact that they accept Muggleborn wizards into the wizarding world, necessitating telling some Muggles), then all they're doing is giving Muggles reason to fear, hate, and kill or enslave them as the wizards themselves been doing to other magical creatures

[guardians_song]

Personally, as far as fanfic ideas, I'm sort of interested in Muggle werewolves. They get shafted in every way possible. I'm also sort of interested in Fenrir Greyback, as far as - How did he get his ideas? Why does he still uphold them? Doesn't it mean something REALLY BAD about the WW that many werewolves would prefer to become monsters that condemn others to their miserable lives (which IS really what he advocates) than to try to muddle along as normally as possible?

The Dementors no longer work for Azkaban, in interview!canon. The PROBLEM is, JKR, this means that soul-sucking monsters are RUNNING FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND MOST WIZARDS CANNOT CREATE A CORPOREAL PATRONUS, SO THEY'LL BE SCREWED AGAINST DEMENTOR MOBS! *sigh*

[smurasaki]

Never mind the Muggles who'll be snacked on. They have no chance at all at defending themselves. Oy. JKR, learn to think things through.