Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (novel): Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[Weirdness Magnet|I]] don't go looking for trouble. [[The Call Knows Where You Live|Trouble usually finds me.]]"''|'''Harry'''}}

 

As a side note, this is the only volume in the series where [[Big Bad|Lord Voldemort]] doesn't make an appearance.

----

 

* [[A Glass in the Hand]]: After one jibe too many about his family, Harry makes the glass ''Marge'' is holding shatter. She assumes she was gripping it too hard, having done the same thing before.

* [[Anxiety Dreams]]

* [[Awful Truth]]: Done twice, first with the story Harry overhears about how Sirius betrayed Harry's parents, and isn't just an insane criminal, then {{spoiler|the real truth of Peter's even crueler betrayal.}} Whether the real truth is slightly better or slightly worse is debatable. On one hand, the traitor {{spoiler|wasn't James's best friend, and said best friend is still alive.}} On the other hand {{spoiler|Peter not only betrayed the Potters and murdered about a dozen innocent people, but also framed Sirius for his crimes, and got to live happily at the Weasleys for twelve years.}}

** And don't forget Harry's reaction to Aunt Marge's taunts.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: {{spoiler|Remus Lupin.}} At the climax of the book when he and {{spoiler|Sirius}} confront {{spoiler|Peter with the evidence of his betrayal, Sirius asks him casually "Shall we kill him together?" and Remus simply answers "Yes, I think so."}}

* [[Book Ends]]: The first and last chapters are called "Owl Post" and "Owl Post Again", respectively.

* [[Burn the Witch]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]]: Harry's over-the-summer essay is about how pointless Medieval witch burnings were, since the few times the victim was a wizard and not a poor ordinary Muggle, they could simply cast a flame-freezing charm and pretend to be suffering.

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: [[Mark Reads Harry Potter|Mark]] says it best:

{{quote|hey children did you enjoy this wonderful children's book full of wonderful awesome things for children well let me WRITE A BOOK BUILT ENTIRELY ON THE FEAR THAT A DERANGED, PSYCHOPATHIC MURDERER IS GOING TO EITHER KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP OR DESTROY YOU IN ANY SORT OF OPEN, PUBLIC SPACE.}}

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: {{spoiler|If the climax hadn't occurred on a night with a full moon, Pettigrew would have been arrested and Sirius cleared, completely changing the arc of the next 4 books.}}

** {{spoiler|Lupin probably would have also remained teacher, since Snape wouldn't have found Sirius while trying to bring Lupin his Wolfsbane potion and ultimately outed Lupin as a werewolf out of spite. This is especially funny when its revealed that Voldemort cursed the Defense Against Dark Arts position. So with this curse Voldemort was ultimately able to make a new body.}}

* [[Covert Pervert]]: ''A History of Magic'' contains an amusing little anecdote: witches and wizards who were caught and burned at the stake cast a charm that would protect them from the fire while all they felt was a gentle tickling sensation. Wendelin the Weird enjoyed it so much that she allowed herself to be caught ''forty-seven'' times. Yep, [[Too Kinky to Torture|she definitely enjoyed it.]]

* [[Cruel Mercy]]: Harry asks {{spoiler|Sirius and Lupin}} to spare {{spoiler|Pettigrew}}'s life, but not because he feels sorry for him, he just doesn't want them to become murderers. "He can go to Azkaban. If anyone deserves that place, he does."

* [[Dirty Coward]]: {{spoiler|Peter Pettigrew.}}

* [[Disappointed in You]]: Lupin.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: Lupin's werewolf condition and the wizarding community's reactions to it, may be a social commentary on living with HIV.

** A number of people (including the director of the movie) believed that Lupin was gay, so it could also be a metaphor for homosexuality; however, Rowling didn't write the character as gay <ref> He married Tonks</ref> and [[Word of God|explicitly stated]] it was an HIV metaphor, so the signs don't fit quite as neatly.

* [[Dynamic Entry]]: [''Lupin busts the door open''] "EXPELLIARMUS!"

* [[Emotion Eater]]: The Dementors.

* [[Empty Shell]]: The result of the Dementor's Kiss.

* [[Everybody Lives]]: Along with ''Chamber of Secrets'', the only book in the series where no character dies (though several characters die in the [[Backstory]]).

* [[Evil Former Friend]]: {{spoiler|Peter}}, although evil is too respectful a word to describe him.

* [[Evil-Detecting Dog|Evil Detecting Cat]]: Crookshanks.

* [[Golden Mean Fallacy]]: Lupin explains that this is one of the advantages to tackling a boggart in groups. It might try and combine two peoples' fears and end up with something a lot less scary than either of them.

* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: The purpose behind telling no one that {{spoiler|the secret keepers were switched}} was to make sure everyone went after Sirius Black. It worked.

* [[I Will Tear Your Arms Off]]: Hagrid says that if he had known Sirius' role in the Potters' death, he would have ripped him limb from limb. Hagrid is a half-giant, so a threat like this should be taken ''very'' seriously.

** Hagrid is a slightly less hairy Chewbacca?

* [[Intellectual Animal]]: The Wolfsbane Potion sort of invokes this. When a werewolf drinks it, they are able to keep their mind human when transformed.

* [[It Was a Gift]]: {{spoiler|the Firebolt and Pigwidgeon.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Nineties]]

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

[[Category:Children's Literature]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]