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Seeing is believing
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hp100 challenge this week is Thestrals. And while I was trying to think up a good idea for my entry, I got to wondering about them.
Hermione says, so we know it must be true, "The only people who can see Thestrals are people who have seen death." It seems from Harry's experience that you've got to see another human being die in front of you. Killing the memory of Tom Riddle isn't enough to do it for him.
Thestrals also have a keen sense of direction. Basically, you just need to tell them where you want to go and they'll take you there.
The like blood and raw meat. Oh, and they're great bony reptilian winged horses.
Some questions:
- What enables you to actually see the Thestrals? Is it some change in your vision? Are there other things you can see now too? Death-vision. Or does the death just change something in your aura that the Thestrals can sense and so they make themselves visible to you?
- Can Muggles see Thestrals?
- Why can't Harry see the Thestrals at the end of GoF? There's a scene where they all see the "horseless carriages". (OK, I know the answer to this one is that it's a big continuity error.)
- Why can't Harry see the Thestrals from the very beginning? Judging from his experience with the dementors in PoA, where he heard his mother pleading with Voldemort, he was right there when his mother was murdered by Voldemort. However, I suppose he could have heard the exchange from an adjoining room.
- How does a Thestral know where to go when you give it a London street address, like Harry does? It's a place Harry's been before, so perhaps it can somehow read the necessary info from his mind. But Hagrid says, "Once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go."
- Why are their names always capitalized?
no subject
In the big interview JKR did right after OotP came out, she said something along the lines of "after you experience death, you have to give it time to sink in." She said she didn't want to mention them without having time to explain them. But it's still continuity error-ish. :)
no subject
And I don't think I buy this "death has to sink in" idea either. If it's not a literal binary "seen death/not seen death" then maybe you could come to the same realisations without actually seeing a person die -- just start being aware of your own mortality.
Or maybe if you saw an illusion of someone dying, then it would have the same effect, so long as you believed it.
As always, the more I think about these things, the more complex they become. *g*
no subject
But that's not "seeing death", either - I can be aware of my own mortality without having seen someone die, just like I can heartily believe and even vividly imagine that on the Moon one doesn't way as much without having been to the Moon myself. If I were ever to go to the Moon it would still be a valid experience, no matter how vividly I'd imagined not weighing as much. Same principle.
I do think that end-of-fourth year bit was slightly sloppy writing, but I'm willing to let it slide. Now, what really annoyed me was that we're never told how Harry got the Marauder's Map back...
Or maybe if you saw an illusion of someone dying, then it would have the same effect, so long as you believed it.
See, now that I could believe. And possibly JKR does too, she's just had no reason to reveal it yet.