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But there’s no reason for the SB gang to offer up the information that Emma is the Dark One. When asked “which of you is the Savior” Emma could just step forward and go “yup, that’s me.” without any sort of new-DO elaboration. It’s going to become fairly obvious that Regina is not the Savior when Merlin is still inside that tree. The SB gang just created a whole new problem for themselves because now they are going to be caught in a lie and forced to reveal that Emma is the Dark One and while Arthur might have accepted Emma was not EVILZ because she was also the Savior AND freed Merlin, now it’s going to look like Emma is super duper evil and no one can be trusted.
#WaysToNotMakeFriends101
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"*sigh*
It’s almost like family was supposed to be the major theme of this show.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love", they hate it and even fear it probably.
Oh they for sure fear it. Just look at how Dudley reacts when Harry mumbles nonsense under his breathe.
But there’s another dimension of fear here, not just of magic itself but that someone will learn the Great Dursley Secret–namely just learn of Harry’s existence. Not even that he’s a wizard but that Harry Potter is a living entity.
And this brings me back to something I noted above: the Dursely’s don’t think things through. In business, one way to endear yourself to a client to create sympathy. To show that you’re a good person. Now, yes, the Dursleys have invited the Masons into their home and are feeding and being all manner of suck-up to them, but there’s a pretty obvious sympathy getting card starting them in the face: Harry himself.
Introducing Harry as the poor, down on his luck orphan whom the Dursleys have “graciously” taken in and are “raising” out of the kindness in their hearts is a sure fire way to get the Mason sympathy and to make the Masons think that Dursleys are just the sort of people who should handle the Masons business affairs. “They care about their poor nephew so much! Surely they’ll care about my business venture with the same gusto!”
But the fear of letting the world know that Harry exists is stronger than a cunning business move.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Thanks the analysis Macy!
I must admit I have a real fondness for CoS so I’m looking forward to our discussion on this book.
To start off, this:
I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I’m not there
is one of my all time favorite HP quotes. I use it often. 🙂
This chapter is a lot of recap from JKR from the last book, to make sure that her readers are all on the same page but it does have a few meaty introspective moments from our young boy wizard.
The Dursleys, crueler than ever, make his life as miserable as they can as he waits the long weeks to return back to school.
And their cruelty isn’t just physical; it’s emotional and mental. They’ve locked up all his Hogwarts possessions (even Hedwig! Cruelty to animals, y’all) and kept it tucked away in an attempt to deny Harry his identity. They’ve always tried to squash his identity in the past but there is something so much worse about trying to stamp out an already formed identity, or even in Harry’s case an identity that only JUST formed.
Previously, as we talked about back in Book 1, Harry was very silent in terms of narrative. There were hints that he was sassy and had a personality, but he had largely accepted that he was “nothing” as the Durselys force him to believe. Now, Harry knows that he is special, but moreover that he’s a person. He gets to have a voice and experiences and friends and a life. The Dursleys are actively denying him any of that.
Once again, Harry is the dirty little secret they keep locked under the stairs.
He is obviously still physically mistreated, and is nearly starved while Dudley gets bigger and bigger.
It’s the little tiny moments that remind us how horrible Petunia Dursley really is. She almost hits him with a frying pan. That could do some serious damage (just ask Flynn Ryder and Cruella from 4B!). She forces him to do back breaking labor without food (or water!) and then when he does get food, it’s less than what you’d give an inmate in prison.
Really, the prison metaphor works well for Harry in this opening chapter. Like Hedwig, he in a cage. He can’t really go anywhere or do anything without the express permission of his warden. He is expected to not cause any trouble, to do as he’s told, and if he doesn’t he’ll get locked in solitary.
It’s the opposite of Hogwarts, a place he loves and feels at home, where he is valued as a person and celebrated for his (unwanted) fame, and isn’t treated like he’s a freak
Yes, exactly. And the gulf in power dynamic is never more clear than it is when Harry is back at Privet Drive (we won’t call it home; it’s not). At Hogwarts, Harry has professors that are above him but he is not treated like a prisoner. He is expected to follow the rules (except when Dumbledore needs him to do a thing…) but overall he is treated with more kindness and freedom than he would ever get at Privet Drive.
Something else that is revealed in this chapter is the Durlseys (mainly Vernon’s) sickening ambition. They’re not trying to keep up with the Jones’s, they’re trying to jump over the Jones’s (who have been waiting patiently in line) and snatch the prize out of their hands. Their plans for entertaining the Masons, are so disgustingly sycophantic, I personally, can’t believe that he actually thinks this is going help him climb the social ladder (much less earn him that vacation home in Majorca)
“Disgustingly sycophantic” is the perfect way to put it! The rehearsed conversation points are sickening to the point of absurdity and farce. It’s like a play–a comedy of errors–where the stage direction is to act insanely over the top because that’s the audiences cue that SOMETHING is going to go wrong.
Why do you think the Dursleys banish all mention or reminder or magic when Harry returns from school?
They hate Harry; they hate magic; they hate his “abnormality.” They don’t care about his identity or his schooling or anything that is labeled “Harry.” It’s interesting because I think if they stopped and thought about it for a hot second they’d realize that the best way to keep Harry out of their hair and removed from their lives is to let him work on his school work, to send letters to his friends. I’m sure Harry would be fine camping out most of the time in his room, away from the Dursleys if he was allowed to hold on to the magical world. The Durselys don’t think this through: the best way to keep Harry out of their collective hair to let him be a quiet wizard in his room, or better yet, to write to Ron or Hermione and get away for the summer.
What does “the dinner party” reveal about Uncle Vernon and his schemes to climb the social ladder?
Vernon doesn’t care about his company. It’s all about him. Let’s say the Masons were going to another house for dinner–a peer and coworker of Vernon’s. Would Vernon be happy that his company (but not him specifically) was potentially getting a large drill order? No, probably not because while it’s good for the company, it’s not good for him. And as far as Vernon is concerned, his happiness and social importance is where it begins and ends.
Why do you think Harry hasn’t heard from his friends all summer?
We’re going to learn the answer to that right quick, but I want to mention the saddest line in this whole chapter: “He had never felt so lonely.”
This is a kid who, prior to Hogwarts, never had a single friend. No one ever talked to him, acknowledged him, to even noticed that he was there. Harry was basically Mr. Cellophane. But the reason why he’s so lonely now, even though his situation should feel akin to how he grew up, is because he now knows what it is to have friends. He knows companionship and friendship and being part of something, a group. The loss of that group weighs on him more than being a “nothing” ever did.
Who or what do you think is peering out from the bushes and/or sitting on Harry’s bed when he enters his room?
CoS came out when I was…roughly…12? So I’m trying to remember what I thought back then. I knew it had to be something magical but I didn’t think it was something evil. For some reason, I couldn’t picture Voldemort sending a little spy after Harry. It just didn’t feel right.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"But…. why? What was wrong with them telling them Emm was both savior and dark one. He JUST said Merlin was never wrong, so Emma will free the guy. Maybe they could have been able to help
Yeah that’s a good question. Arthur clearly believes in what Merlin says and already believes Emma can do the thing; telling them that Emma is the Savior will only add to his belief. The Dark One thing might concern him, but, again, he’s already on Team #MerlinNeverLies
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"In a pinch I think the writers would go with what you’re saying–and they may actually go with it this season in order explain why a CS or a Henry/Emma kiss didn’t save Emma Swan–but they shot themselves in the foot back in S2 with the Snowing kiss. They are just hoping we don’t remember.
But, as I often say, I do not have amnesia.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"*shrug* Shock. The writers don’t know how things work; they have always played fast and loose with Emma’s age and pregnancy stuff so even if it doesn’t make sense, it might still be his birthday for poetic reasons. I’ll actually take Henry being born on August 15th over human physiology since it ties him to Neal, Emma and Regina.
Sometimes symbolism is far more important than details
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"If they stick with Arthurian mythos, then Nimue trapped Merlin there. It’s looking more and more like we were right; Nimue was the first Dark One.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Merlin is trapped in the tree according to Arthur in the latest sneak speak. Only the savior can free him. Regina declares herself the savior to avoid divulging that Emma is now the dark one.
I haven’t seen the latest peek yet (it came out while I was sleeping) but OMGOSH I got something *right*?! This hasn’t happened in years.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I wonder… Can TLK be initiated by the person who is cursed? It seems to me that the whole TLK canon hinges on the cursed person being saved by an outside intervention from someone who loves them no matter what, but also with no hope of the kiss saving them or having any sort of efficacy. At least, that’s how it’s been framed in Season 1 as well. It’s sort of like the Narnia wardrobe paradox — the wardrobe won’t act as a portal unless you don’t expect it to (I might be embellishing this, I haven’t read CS Lewis since I was a kid). Point is, I don’t think TLK would work if it’s goal driven. Arguably, this is why Belle/Rumple’s TLK didn’t work: not just because Rumple wasn’t willing to give up his powers, but because Belle was doing it for the wrong reasons. I think the same rules apply in this case — you can neither force a TLK on someone, nor extract one from someone you love to solve your predicament.
I would agree with all of this except for one big sticking point: Snowing TLK in S2A, specifically in the finale “The Queen of Hearts”.
Snow wasn’t trying to say goodbye and wasn’t under the illusion that there was no hope to save Charming. She kissed him because she knew it would work; she knew that TLK would achieve her goal of waking up Charming. Otherwise, your theory works perfectly well.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
