Come and talk me through my Half-Blood Prince film canon WTF moment

[birdsofshore]

OK, this is going to take some explaining, but bear with me.

I was looking up something about the Vanishing Cabinets, and, being lazy and feckless, I looked on the Harry Potter wiki. YES I KNOW. We have had a lot of trouble with it before, I know, stating film canon as fact even when it contradicts book canon, using lego games as canon, I KNOW.

This is a bit different. It's about something that isn't mentioned in the books, but only in film canon.

When Draco is trying to fix the cabinet in the film, he tests it with various things: first an apple, which comes back with a bite out of it, and then a white bird, which comes back dead. Now, I took these as signs that the cabinet was now WORKING - that the apple and the bird had been successfully transported, and that Death Eaters had done these things to them to show that they had indeed traveled to Borgin and Burkes and back.

However, Harry Potter wiki (and on googling, loads of other sources on the internet) states that these things proved the cabinet was NOT working - that the apple came back 'missing a moderate chunk' because Draco HADN'T fixed it properly, and that the bird came back dead for the same reason. WHAT? I mean-- WHAT? REALLY?

OK, I am annoyed about this for lots of reasons. One, because it's WRONG. Two, because it's WRONG-- no, two, because there's clearly a BITE taken out of the apple. Three, because the interpretation that the Vanishing Cabinet isn't working when these things happen ruins all the implications of these scenes that I really like.

A bite from an apple has all sorts of symbolism: the poisoned apple that kills Snow White, the innocence lost in the Garden of Eden. There's chilling music when we see the bitten apple, not because "oh dear, Draco hasn't fixed it yet", but "oh shit, some Death Eater bit the lovely perfect apple with his big old teeth and ruined it", and both we and Draco know the implications for the school when Death Eaters come into Hogwarts via the cabinet.

The same with the bird. When it comes back dead, Draco looks stricken - and lots of sources are saying this is "because he knows he hasn't fixed it properly". NOOOO! It's because he knows he HAS. We have the symbolism again of the white bird (peace, love) being destroyed by the Death Eaters who are waiting at Borgin and Burkes.

This feels important to me, for the development of film!Draco's character. He isn't celebrating that he's repaired the cabinets - he's appalled, fearful, sickened and anxious at the knowledge of what it means that he has. The apple and the bird symbolise, to me, the innocence of the lives that will be lost at Hogwarts, but also Draco's lost innocence. I think Tom Felton did a bang up job of portraying this, and it makes me annoyed to read these scenes so misinterpreted.

I know it's all a bit cheesy, but I really like these scenes :( If you want to review them yourself, they are here:

Apple scene: from about 25 secs here

Bird scene: from about 3 mins 15 on the same video (which is a random collection of Draco scenes from the first 6 films).

What do you think? Am I completely wrong? Is Harry Potter wiki completely wrong? Am I mad for caring? Shall I go and do deep breathing? Will I have to sob in annoyance now every time I watch the Half-Blood Prince?

Comments

[traintracks.livejournal.com]

The way I've interpreted those scenes is that while the apple worked, and indeed Death Eater Anon sent it back with a bite out of it to prove it had gone somewhere, the bird did NOT work; the Vanishing Cabinet malfunctioned with a living thing and killed it, thus it wasn't yet ready to transport actual, living Death Eaters from the shop to Hogwarts.

Of course, the flaw in this is that one COULD assume Death Eater Anon DID kill the bird to prove it had gone somewhere. But then why does Draco, as you note, look so afraid and despairing that the bird is dead? I think he does assume that the cabinet malfunctioned and, therefore, that is perhaps what we are to take from that scene as well.

???

[birdsofshore]

I think he looks afraid and despairing because SOMEBODY KILLED THE BIRD, the little white bird he had held in his hands tenderly and nestled to his innocent breast (OK I am reaching very slightly here). And next they are going to come through the cabinet and kill a whole load of other people. DDD:

*sobs at poor Draco being misunderstood*

[traintracks.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I hit send before I was done! Blarg!

I was going to add that though your point was to refute what I just said, I really like your interpretation even if that's not how I'd seen it! I'm going to watch with new eyes now. <3

[birdsofshore]

Aw I am maybe just being soft. I totally accept Draco is a vicious bastard - after all he does break Harry's nose in cold blood earlier in the same book - but Tom F just wrings my heart in these scenes and I feel sure the apple and the bird were chosen for their symbolism. It's all pointless if he's just upset it isn't working.

I can see the other interpretation of the bird, but I can't believe anyone thinks the apple came back damaged because the cabinet wasn't working. Except Harry Potter wiki does. Ho hum.

[traintracks.livejournal.com]

I'll add that my interpretation of his despair and fear is that a malfunctioning Vanishing Cabinet means Voldemort is going to kill him and his parents.

Maybe his feelings are mixed. ;-)

Whatever the reason, I love how Tom Felton plays Draco in HBP. He really moves me. </3 <3

[birdsofshore]

Yes! I agree it does work to see it that way. His fear at not being able to repair the cabinet is definitely a possibility.

I think he gives a wonderful performance and I am so glad that he and the director brought out those vulnerable and sympathetic aspects of Draco's character so beautifully.

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

That is how I always saw it. Someone broke the neck of the bird...but during the kiss scene (that is just movie not book as well) there is a live bird in the cabinet. I thought why'd they kill the first bird, but not the second. So though I can't see the apple as anything but some guy took a bite out of it, I can see how the first bird was it not working and the second bird was it working. OR that second bird was sent from the shop, a new bird that Draco never put in their but the guy from the shop did. And Draco never got to release that bird, since Harry did. Does that mean that Draco wasn't even sure if the cabinet worked when he let the DE in? I don't know.

But I saw it the same way you saw when I watched it. It never occurred to me that anyone would see that in a different way. I thought it was obvious.

[birdsofshore]

oh YES YES that's right, the second bird puzzled me too but I remember now I had decided it must be a bird sent from the shop, that Draco had not yet found. The fact of the bird being black backs that up.

You put it all very clearly considering it's such a muddly thing C:

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

I really loved the idea of being symbolism as well. I remember people complaining about all the time wasted in the film on the birds and I'm like 'its the art of it! It's beautiful.'

[birdsofshore]

There's a wonderful fic based on film canon of this. I'll hunt it out.

[birdsofshore]

here you go:

http://two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com/220586.html

it's a bit angsty, mind :(
but evokes those same emotions for me

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

:(

And later on Draco might understand this. Later on, he might get to seize it and hold it and taste it. But for the moment, he is holding the dead body of a small white bird in his two hands, and he is crying.