Well, my thoughts on this are as yet completely formed. However, far be it for me to resist an invitation to pontificate.
I think that many of us (myself included) expected Dumbledore to die. It fitted the genre -- the mentor dies so the fledgling hero has to strike out on his own and begin his own journey, not the journey chosen by others.
With the death of Sirius and the de-deification of Dumbledore as no longer omnipotent or omniscient in Harry's eyes, JKR has fulfilled those expectations -- Harry will no longer blindly listen to others. Of course, he has the added complication that he allowed himself to be tricked into "rescuing" Sirius; however, I (and possibly he will) rationalise this by pointing out how frustrated Harry was with Dumbledore, how frightened/wary he was of Snape, and how he is only fifteen and cannot be expected to be perfect, much as we'd all like.
The Pensieve incident, I think, was basically character development, a way to further encourage Harry to think for himself (and not attempt to emulate his parents), and a reason why Harry wouldn't have gone to Snape after McGonagall left the Hospital Wing. I suspect, also, that it will impact future books.
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WARNING: SPOILERS (reposted because I am an HTML-cretin)
Date: 2003-06-22 07:29 am (UTC)Well, my thoughts on this are as yet completely formed. However, far be it for me to resist an invitation to pontificate.
I think that many of us (myself included) expected Dumbledore to die. It fitted the genre -- the mentor dies so the fledgling hero has to strike out on his own and begin his own journey, not the journey chosen by others.
With the death of Sirius and the de-deification of Dumbledore as no longer omnipotent or omniscient in Harry's eyes, JKR has fulfilled those expectations -- Harry will no longer blindly listen to others. Of course, he has the added complication that he allowed himself to be tricked into "rescuing" Sirius; however, I (and possibly he will) rationalise this by pointing out how frustrated Harry was with Dumbledore, how frightened/wary he was of Snape, and how he is only fifteen and cannot be expected to be perfect, much as we'd all like.
The Pensieve incident, I think, was basically character development, a way to further encourage Harry to think for himself (and not attempt to emulate his parents), and a reason why Harry wouldn't have gone to Snape after McGonagall left the Hospital Wing. I suspect, also, that it will impact future books.
*sigh* I want more! More books!