Dylan and the Dream Pirates: Resolving the Ending

[jasonandrew]

This morning, I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and then took a long hot bath.

I started thinking about the one thing that always bothered me about the Harry Potter books.

Starting with Book 4, Harry Potter gets into fights with the main bad-guy and lives. Voldemort should have kicked his lightning bolt ass in magical duels. The last book somewhat moderated this by at the least explaining why Harry might beat him in a duel. Still, it always felt off.

Voldemort studied for decades and even Dumbledore had a hard time with him. Harry is a better wizard than Snape? It just didn't work for me.

I realized that I had the same problem with the final climax of Dylan and the Dream Pirates. Centotaph has been a power-mongering bad-ass for centuries. A 13 year old boy isn't going to beat him in a fight.

And then it occurred to me how to make it work. How I can change the contest to make it a good fight.

I think this is going to work.

Comments

[ocvictor.livejournal.com]

Well, as you say, the last book points out a lot of WHY that happened, but there's also always a lot of mitigating factors along the way.

Harry never really faces Voldemort long until the end: In "Goblet of Fire" he escapes. In "Phoenix" the kids hold their own for a while, but are about to get their butts kicked until Sirius and the grownups show up, and even then, Voldemort almost wipes the floor with them until Dumbledore shows up. And so on. Harry always has help until, as Voldemort himself points out in the last book, he runs out of protectors. So Harry never really wins any fights, he just manages to survive.

[highway-west.livejournal.com]

I just never bought the escape in Book 4.

[ocvictor.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, Rowling was a bit vague on the "how" of that happening, but as the connection between the wands was foreshadowed all the way back to the first book, it ends up making sense.

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you were able to come up with something that might work.

The question though is if Moaning Myrtle came by to visit you while you were in the bath! Even Caleb laughed at that scene in Goblet of Fire. :D

[talithakalago.livejournal.com]

I love moments like that.