Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (novel): Difference between revisions

=== {{tropelist|Tropes exclusive to this book or at least especially prominent: ===}}

* [[Anticlimax]]: Many fans agree that the [[Final Battle|final confrontation]] between [[The Chosen One|Harry]] and [[Complete Monster|Lord]] [[Big Bad|Voldemort]] was a bit of a let-down. {{spoiler|Voldemort casts the Killing Curse at Harry with the [[Artifact of Death|Elder Wand]], but since Harry is its true master, the curse backfires and kills Voldemort}}. From a storytelling point of view, the true climax of the novel was when Voldemort "killed" Harry in the forest (and sealed his own fate), everything after that was denouement, but Voldemort did not know that.

*** Dudley Dursley finally reconciles with his cousin. [[Word of God]] states that when attacked by Dementors in ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Order of The Phoenix (novel)|BookHarry 5Potter and the Order of The Phoenix]]'', Dudley was forced to [[Heel Realization|see himself for the cruel bully and fat spoiled slob he was.]]

* [[Badass]]: Neville Longbottom. Yes, Neville.

** For instance, his plan to save Harry from the killing curse involved: Voldemort's horcrux absorbing some of the impact, Harry's blood being used in Voldemort's resurrection, having Voldemort himself cast the curse, making sure the elder wand was not fully under Voldemort's control and finally by having Harry willingly sacrifice himself rather than continue to fight.

**** In Dumbledore's plan {{spoiler|Snape would have killed him without Malfoy getting involved at all.}} This would have prevented Voldemort (or anyone else) from obtaining the Elder Wand's full power as it would not been won in a duel. Though things do end up working out even better than he could have imagined.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: After the ministryMinistry is taken over by Voldemort, they quickly adopt a strictly anti-Muggle policy, even setting up Inquisition style hearings for Muggle bornsMuggleborns. And during one such trial, Dolores Umbridge flat out states that a Muggle-born she is interrogating ''is not a witch''. Harry can't take any more after this. Fortunately, [[Word of God]] states that Umbridge ended up in Azkaban for the rest of her life.

* [[Blood Magic]]: Because Voldemort used Harry's blood to bring himself back to life in ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Goblet of Fire (novel)|Goblet of Fire]]'', he's kept Lily's protective enchantment on Harry alive within his rebuilt body.

* [[Call Back]]: Doubles as [[Book Ends]]. In ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (novel)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'', Hagrid takes Harry to #4 Privet Drive for the first time... in Sirius Black's flying motorbike. Guess how Harry leaves forever at the beginning of this book.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The series [[Chekhov's Gun/Literature/Harry Potter|has its own page.]]

* [[Continuity Cavalcade]]: Name just about any character from the previous books who isn't dead or in St. Mungo's insanity ward -- tenward—ten to one that he/she will appear ''somewhere'' in this book.

* [[Cool Old Guy]]: With Dumbledore gone, we get {{spoiler|his brother, Aberforth, who is almost as cool.}}

* [[Crippling Overspecialisation]]: Voldemort, though the revelation builds on hints from previous books. Essentially all he ever cared about was the Killing Curse (or, more generally, the Unforgiveable Curses) and using Horcruxes to live forever, and from his narrow knowledge wasn't even aware that {{spoiler|he had possessed the Resurrection Stone (he was never interested in the Hallows, however). To the point that he ''still'' uses Avada Kedavra on Harry at the end despite it having backfired (in different ways) three times before.}} However, this is only with Harry, with everyone else, he brings out his most powerful curses, and even when Harry's sacrifice protects everyone, Voldemort still blasts Kingsley, McGonagall, and Slughorn out of the way when duelling all three ''at the same time''. With the final Avada Kedavra that essentially kills Voldemort, he was kind of left with no other choice. He could not curse any of the defenders because they were protected by Harry's love, and even if he killed Harry, he would be attacked by everyone else. He really didn't have a choice.

* [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget]]: Severus Snape. {{spoiler|When he started out he was [[Used to Be a Sweet Kid|a troubled neglected boy]] who just wanted Lily to like him. Then he got into Slytherin and things slowly turned rather dark at the influence of his friends. Then he got into the Death Eaters and completely forgot that blood-lines didn't used to matter to him, and things got worse to the point where he was trying to bargain with Voldemort to exchange Lily's own son's and husband's lives in order to save hers. Then he came back under ''Dumbledore's'' influence and ended up putting his life on the line to save other people, including Harry}}. So he wavered across the "Evil" line for a fair while there, obviously.

** Dumbledore gives a similar message to Harry at King's Cross.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Taken [[Up to Eleven]] with the Muggle-born show trials. And then surpassing even that and [[This Is Wrong on So Many Levels]] with the sculpture of a giant throne made of dead/dying Muggles that is horrifically reminiscent of the gas chambers of the Holocaust.

* [[Feed the Mole]]

* [[Final Exam Finale]]{{context}}

* [[Flirting Under Fire]]: How {{spoiler|Ron and Hermione get together}}.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: two in this book. {{spoiler|One, obviously, by Harry at the end when he has to face Voldemort so he could kill him. Second, Snape, really deserves a mention in that he gave his entire life to Dumbledore in return for helping to keep Lily safe, and then later to protect Harry, even infiltrating Voldemort's inner circle to do so, which eventually resulted in his death}}.

* [[Identical Twin ID Tag|Identical Twin ID Tags]]s: When George lost an ear.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: In [[Harry Potter and Thethe SorcererPhilosopher's Stone (novel)|Book One]], Ron yells "Are you mad? Are you a witch or not?" to Hermione. In this one, she yells at him, "Are you mad? Are you a wizard or what?"

** Bellatrix Lestrange at the hands of Molly Weasley after the former attempted to murder Ginny. The movie one-upped by having Molly hit her with another spell, causing her to shatter and exonerating Molly from actually killing her.

** Hermione and Ron. After seven books of [[Ship Tease|teasing]], they make out in the hall while Voldemort and the Death Eaters are attacking the school and people are dying. (Although the books were dropping [[Word of God|"anvil-sized hints"]] at them having feelings for each other at least as far back as ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (novel)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]''.)

** There's also Harry and Ginny, (mainly in [[The Movie]] where Ginny gets close to no screen time at all.) They became a couple close to the end of ''[[Half -Blood Prince]]'' and still break up before the end. To make matters worse, they spend [[Up to Eleven|even less screen time together]] in the last book. By the epilogue, {{spoiler|they're [[Happily Married]]}}.

* [[Love Redeems]] and [[Love Hurts]]: {{spoiler|Snape gets hit with both with regards to Lily. He not only fails to save her, but then spends the remainder of his life trying to protect the son she had with the man he hated, despite the fact that he tried to keep him in detention for most of his school life. It probably didn't make things any easier that Harry looked exactly like James but with Lily's eyes.}} Ouch.

* [[Monster Fun Facts]]: Many books have a passage like this when Harry is learning about monsters in school; in this one Harry doesn't go to school but runs down a list of things at Voldemort's command to the Dursleys (who don't know much about magical stuff), including:

* [[Morality Pet]]: {{spoiler|Lily for Severus}}. The fact that she was dead for seventeen years didn't seem to change this fact.

* [[Mr. Exposition]]: As [[Cleolinda Jones]] pointed out, "Only Dumbledore could still have The Power of Exposition {{spoiler|a year dead.}}".

** Also, for some reason, Voldemort can fly. There was some [[Foreshadowing]] though: his name means "Flight of Death" in French.

** (For instance, the man ''destroys one of his own [[Soul Jar|Soul Jars]]s.'' It was part of a huge [[Batman Gambit]] set up by Dumbledore, but, ''still''.)

* [[No Body Left Behind]]: How Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort's [[Karmic Deaths]] are portrayed in the film version. The latter is also a good [[Call Back]] to his first defeat in the film adaptation of [[Harry Potter and Thethe SorcererPhilosopher's Stone (novel)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]], as he disintegrates into ashes and fabric before even those fade away.

{{quote|'''Lily''': I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary [[Mac Donald]]MacDonald the other day?}}

** Ron even [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s this.

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: Ron and Hermione {{spoiler|recovering the basilisk fangs from the [[Chamber of Secrets]]. This could have been used to show another spiritual illusion to try and stop them, like with the locket,}} but it was left out due to the book's [[Cosmic Deadline]] (see above). Happily, it's included in the movie.

*** In the film it's ''[[Took a Level Inin Badass|Neville-By-God-Longbottom]]'' who gets to deliver the [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] to Voldemort!

** Also {{spoiler|Severus Snape.}}

* [[Rule of Three]]: Three Hallows, the [[Youngest Child Wins|third Peverell brother doesn't meet an untimely death]]. This book also features the third time that Voldemort tries the killing curse on Harry.

* [[Sleep Cute]]: In the book and [[Harry Potter (film)and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1|the first film]] Ron and Hermione are asleep next to each other, with their hands lying so they appear to be reaching out for each other. Given a horrifying echo in Part II when {{spoiler|[[Together in Death]] Remus and Tonks' bodies are laid out in the exact same way.}}

* [[Spared by the Adaptation]]: {{spoiler|Peter Pettigrew, annoyingly enough.}}

* [[Start of Darkness]]: a variation. This time, instead of seeing Voldemort's transition from cute, troubled kid to full-on genocidal maniac we get to see Snape's transition from cute, troubled kid to troubled heartbroken adult, and Dumbledore's transition from cute, troubled kid to wise manipulative [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] - both of them dabbling considerably in the Dark Arts for a while. Apparently coming from a broken home is a pre-requisite for this kind of thing. Interestingly, all three of them were [[Insufferable Genius|Insufferable Geniuses]]es as teenagers.

* [[Sue Donym]]: The Potterwatch radio crew refer to themselves by ridiculously transparent pseudonyms based on their actual names: Lee [[wikipedia:Jordan River|Jordan]] is ''River'', '''King'''sley Shacklebolt is ''Royal'', Fred Weasley (weasel) starts as ''Rodent'' (quickly changed to ''Rapier'', presumably for "rapier wit"), and Remus Lupin exhausts the last untapped blatant reference in his name by going as ''Romulus''. To their credit, Kingsley is the wizard [[James Earl Jones]] as far as vocal recognition goes and they would have been killed on sight anyhow for belonging to the Order of the Phoenix, so protecting their identities wasn’t worth much.

* [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]: Virtually everyone, but particular standouts include Mrs. Weasely, Prof. Slughorn, and above all Neville Longbottom, who in some ways really is the biggest hero in the story.

* [[Troubled but Cute]]: Snape as a little kid.

** Also, the former [[Trope Namer]], Dolores Umbridge.

* [[Unrequited Love Lasts Forever]]: {{spoiler|Snape}}. [[Love Hurts|Ouch]].

* [[Untwist]]: Wormtail's life debt to Harry {{spoiler|isn't repaid out of gratitude or a [[Heel Face Turn]], but instead he's simply magically prevented from harming Harry at a critical moment. His "mercy" is completely accidental, and then triggers a [[You Have Failed Me...]] failsafe...}}

** Harry delivers one to Lupin, when he offers to abandon his family to help the trio on their quest, largely out of self-loathing.

* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: {{spoiler|Wormtail's silver hand was enchanted to kill him if he ever betrayed Voldemort. He does so accidentally.}}

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