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Jul. 28th, 2007 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solitary_summerOn a less whiney & self-pitying note...
How exactly was Voldemort's fall to happen, according to Dumbledore's plans?
Dumbledore wanted Snape to end up with the Elder Wand:
- for him to use it against Voldemort, or merely to make sure that no one else became its master? (In either case that'd be another huge sign of trust, considering the thing's bloody history and power of temptation.)
- Was Snape to take it, or was it supposed to be buried with Dumbledore as it had been, with Snape only nominally its master?
- Did Snape know about any of this? Apparently enough to realise what was coming, in the end.
- Dumbledore knew that Voldemort would eventually go after the Elder Wand in order to be able defeat Harry. So even if Snape had been its master, this would have effectively signed his death warrant (since Voldemort isn't known to bother with 'expelliarmus' and in this of all cases would have taken extra care to be safe rather than sorry), unless Voldemort had been unable to find out the current location of the wand. Was Snape's death a calculated risk in Dumbledore's plan, another player sacrificed?
- Would Voldemort have been able to kill Harry (or at least the part of his own soul within Harry) with another wand - probably yes, since he hadn't truly been the master of the Elder Wand, either. But would he have been able to do that if Harry hadn't willingly sacrificed himself, but defended himself?
- How certain was Dumbledore that Harry would survive and go back to kill Voldemort? It cannot have been more than a guess, since even so he gives him the choice to return or go 'on'. There's an awful lot of variables in this plan...
- Was the plan for Harry to destroy all the horcruxes, including Nagini, then sacrifice himself, or in any case be killed, and for Snape to kill Voldemort with the Elder Wand, presuming that Voldemort hadn't been able to locate it first? I'd thought for a while that maybe it'd be Snape's task to kill Nagini (and I wonder, if he, like Harry under his cover, is still trying to figure out a way to do that when he sees his death coming), since he was the only one close enough to Voldemort to be in a position to do it, but apparently he didn't even know about the horcruxes. Or at least hadn't been told, as far as we can gather from his memories. Could he have figured it out regardless? Would Dumbledore have told him at the appropriate time via portrait?
Am I missing something here?
Another thing about Snape's death and the complaints that it was meaningless and not heroic enough - as others have pointed out, it wasn't senseless, since it let Voldemort believe that he was now the master of the Elder Wand, but IMO it's brave, even heroic because it's so random. He kept his cover, he did his best, he remained true to the decision he'd made until the bitter end, and the realisation that there'd be no revenge, no heroic death (and while Snape certainly is pragmatic, even he must have had moments where he imagined what he'd throw in Voldemort's face before he'd kill him) for him, maybe not even public rehabilitation (he probably didn't trust Harry one bit with that), must have been bitter. He dies not even knowing whether he's achieved anything at all. Nothing but a glimpse of Lily's eyes in a face he hated.
How exactly was Voldemort's fall to happen, according to Dumbledore's plans?
Dumbledore wanted Snape to end up with the Elder Wand:
- for him to use it against Voldemort, or merely to make sure that no one else became its master? (In either case that'd be another huge sign of trust, considering the thing's bloody history and power of temptation.)
- Was Snape to take it, or was it supposed to be buried with Dumbledore as it had been, with Snape only nominally its master?
- Did Snape know about any of this? Apparently enough to realise what was coming, in the end.
- Dumbledore knew that Voldemort would eventually go after the Elder Wand in order to be able defeat Harry. So even if Snape had been its master, this would have effectively signed his death warrant (since Voldemort isn't known to bother with 'expelliarmus' and in this of all cases would have taken extra care to be safe rather than sorry), unless Voldemort had been unable to find out the current location of the wand. Was Snape's death a calculated risk in Dumbledore's plan, another player sacrificed?
- Would Voldemort have been able to kill Harry (or at least the part of his own soul within Harry) with another wand - probably yes, since he hadn't truly been the master of the Elder Wand, either. But would he have been able to do that if Harry hadn't willingly sacrificed himself, but defended himself?
- How certain was Dumbledore that Harry would survive and go back to kill Voldemort? It cannot have been more than a guess, since even so he gives him the choice to return or go 'on'. There's an awful lot of variables in this plan...
- Was the plan for Harry to destroy all the horcruxes, including Nagini, then sacrifice himself, or in any case be killed, and for Snape to kill Voldemort with the Elder Wand, presuming that Voldemort hadn't been able to locate it first? I'd thought for a while that maybe it'd be Snape's task to kill Nagini (and I wonder, if he, like Harry under his cover, is still trying to figure out a way to do that when he sees his death coming), since he was the only one close enough to Voldemort to be in a position to do it, but apparently he didn't even know about the horcruxes. Or at least hadn't been told, as far as we can gather from his memories. Could he have figured it out regardless? Would Dumbledore have told him at the appropriate time via portrait?
Am I missing something here?
Another thing about Snape's death and the complaints that it was meaningless and not heroic enough - as others have pointed out, it wasn't senseless, since it let Voldemort believe that he was now the master of the Elder Wand, but IMO it's brave, even heroic because it's so random. He kept his cover, he did his best, he remained true to the decision he'd made until the bitter end, and the realisation that there'd be no revenge, no heroic death (and while Snape certainly is pragmatic, even he must have had moments where he imagined what he'd throw in Voldemort's face before he'd kill him) for him, maybe not even public rehabilitation (he probably didn't trust Harry one bit with that), must have been bitter. He dies not even knowing whether he's achieved anything at all. Nothing but a glimpse of Lily's eyes in a face he hated.