![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdsofshoreOK, 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?
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?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-10-12 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-12 09:12 pm (UTC)There's a later bird, a black one, that survives, and it flies out of the cabinet later (I think when Harry and Ginny are in there?). Again it's a bit cheesy, but the Death Eaters have killed the white bird and left the black one to live.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-13 02:54 am (UTC)Why else would the bird be in there at all without Draco there? He sent things and then called them back right after. But in the end what needed to be done was the other cabinet sending something to that one and he opens it and lets it out.
Though, say he did send the black bird (or simply put it in there and Harry and Ginny entered before he could send it), that would mean Draco saw Harry and Ginny kiss. (OH, NO that is such a sad thought for me!)
But I agree that the black bird in the movie was to tell us that the cabinet works. It works from both sides, and the black bird was waiting to be released just like the DEs would be later. That's why I thought the DE at the shop sent that one over, because if he didn't then where was Draco?
ETA: I think that I can't see the apple as a failure, because who goes from failure to upping the experiment? If the apple failed, then you continue to use apples until they work. It doesn't make sense for them to be showing us all the failures. Though they are still using birds, I'd still see sending something from the shop instead of Draco sending it there and back as upping the experiment. We've moved from one stage to the next stage.
But I understand they didn't have a lot of time to devote to this. They couldn't show us both. Another reason it doesn't make sense as him failing is because we are on Harry's side and Draco is representing the forewarnings of what is coming. If he keeps failing, then there is no tension. (He is working on it, but failing would only be a forewarning if you are on Draco's side and want him to figure it out.) We don't have to worry about what Draco is up to if he is failing. He is only a forewarning of the evil to come if he is succeeding.