Film Theory: Harry Potter ISN'T The Chosen One?

The wizarding world needed a hero. They got the magical hero they deserved. Or... the magical hero they thought they needed? They thought they needed to deserve it. The one they thought they wanted to deserve... Fuck it, they got BATMAN. He who has the power to conquer, the Dark Lord draws near... Born to those who have defied him three times, born when he dies the seventh month... And the Dark Lord will mark him as an equal, but he will have the power of darkness. The Lord does not know... And either must die at the hands of the other because neither can live while the other survives...

The one who has the power to defeat the Dark Lord will be born when he dies in the seventh month... Hello Internet! Welcome to FILM THEORY! It's like game

theory

, but with a little difference. I'll let you find out what it is. Now, if that prophecy sounded familiar, it's because it's the big reveal that comes at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in the series of books, movies and, ugh, "Video Games," about young people. orphan who is rushed to Hogwarts Wizarding School with his friends, Ron and Hermione, to discover that he is destined to save the world.

Honestly, I never understood the "Hype". The fifth book was always the one I liked the least. Too much HP complains about being special. Oh, hold on! Anyone would love to have magical powers. So you're different, get over it! But I will say that the fifth MOVIE was my favorite of the franchise. Wow, that final battle between wizards! I could watch it for days! And yet, whether I loved it or hated it, I never understood the "fuss" around this prophecy. Yes, yes, Harry Potter is the

chosen

one. He is the one who will have to kill Voldemort.

Big surprise... Did we really learn something here? NO! We just had a nice filler book to finish off some of the important characters and then move on to some of the darker installments. It always seemed like an anticlimactic revelation to me, well, at least it was, until I started thinking about it. We have all assumed that it was Harry that the prophecy was talking about. You know, it's his name on book covers, movie posters, and tighty-whities. But what if it was all a cover-up, a reus, a brilliant public relations campaign to divert attention from the "Other Boy" who lived, the TRUE HERO of the story?

What if this prophecy wasn't just a "No Duh Moment," but rather a clue hidden in plain sight for us careful fans as to the identity of the REAL Hogwarts hero? Sound crazy? Let's break the prophecy! We know that the Dark Lord is referring to Voldemort, the evil wizard with the unfortunate nose job, but the rest of the matter is unclear. We know that "He who has the power to defeat the Dark Lord" must have been "Born of those who have thrice defied" the old noses here. Okay, well, Harry seems to fit the bill. Her parents, Lily and James Potter, were members of "The Order of the Phoenix, a secret society founded by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore to oppose Voldemort, so they probably did their part in the fight.

That said, we have I've never actually been given three specific examples. So you know the connection is, well, at best, what about these damn ancient prophecies? Why couldn't they ever say in clear English what they mean? ?you're the one. Go kill this guy. Anyway, the hero must also be "born when the seventh month dies." researching the topic, I learned that the seventh month is actually July and Harry's birthday is July thirty-first, so that sounds pretty straightforward, and finally there are those parts about "The Dark Lord marking him as his equal." " and "a power the Dark Lord does not know." With Harry, these two go hand in hand.

Voldemort marked Harry as his equal when he showed up at the Potter home to kill Harry and prevent the prophecy, but instead of killing him with the unforgivable killing curse Avada Kedavra, Lily Potter threw herself between them, sacrificing herself in the process. Voldemort was completely blindsided as a mother's love, something he himself never knew or felt, activated ancient magic that reflected the curse back on him and left Harry with an extremely marketable lightning bolt scar. Seriously, it looks like a temporary tattoo and don't worry, it is. But yes, the books and movies make it quite clear that the power that Voldemort doesn't know about is "Love".

And it's exactly that power of love that allowed Harry to defeat him at the Battle of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows: Part 2. Ugh, really? "Love is power..." Can we... can we have more clichés here? It could have been something cool like... I don't know, lasers. Well, let's take a second to step back here and look at the terms of the prophecy objectively. If we're being completely honest, if we could find another child who was born in late July, had kind parents, and was loved at some point in his life, you actually have a pretty valid candidate. for hero of the magical world.

Well, make that a very specific hero candidate. You would have yourself; Neville Longbottom. Wait, is that him? This guy? Oh wow, he actually turned out to be quite handsome. He? He is strictly platonic. Hey, I can appreciate the beauty of him and in a strictly platonic way. Don't get any ideas. Now I understand the confusion. In the movies, Neville was worse than the third wheel, he was the fourth wheel on Harry Ron Hermione's tricycle, and yes, the idea that he's a hero seems like one of those bits of far-flung fan fiction that sprung up in some dark corner. . from Reddit, but if you join me on this one for a minute, I think you'll be surprised by what we found.

Let's go back to the prophecy. He is born at the death of the seventh month; That was the biggest, at least vague, stipulation of the prophecy, and one that I would find really difficult to avoid. The funny thing is that I don't have to say that Neville's birthday was July 30th, one day before Harry's, and based on the vague wording, I'd say we have at least a few days window here. Especially if the prophecy is right ruling out "Love is the power that he who must have sleep apnea does not know." Okay, next. "He Born of those who defied him three times." So, Lily and James Potter may have done their share of old dares.

Again, we're not really given clear examples, but look at Neville's parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom. These two were Aurors. It's basically like being a professional Harry Potter, but less sulking and with better pay. Their backstory gets the focus in most of the books and definitely in the movie, but they were a serious power couple who clearly would have been on the Dark Lord's first line of defense; in fact, they were so important that Voldemort's followers captured and tortured them. Neville's parents use the Cruciatus Curse to drive them permanently insane. One of the attackers, Barty Crouch jr.

He even dressed up as a teacher and made Neville watch him torture a spider with that same curse. Anyway, if we're going to assume that the Potters somehow defied Voldemort three times, I think we can give the Longbottoms the same consideration, so those are two major checkmarks, maybe there's something to this after all; Which leaves us with our last two criteria for being the

chosen

one: being marked by Voldemort as his equal and having a power that Voldemort does not have. I said before that this missing power is clearly intended to be the power of love.

That Hewey Lewis! Okay, enough of that, we don't want to challenge the copyright police and movies and books make the point about love, but it's unreasonable to rule out that this power could also belong to Neville. We've already established that his parents parallel the dedication of James and Lily Potter, perhaps even more so because the only way to incapacitate them was to torture them beyond recognition. A prolonged period of torment in the face of Lily's quick decision to save her son. So, we have the same evidence to believe that Neville has powerful love juice pumping through his veins just like Harry does, or maybe everyone is wrong and the power Voldemort doesn't know about is Herbology.

Let's face it, Neville really stands out, and Harry, uh, doesn't have green thumbs, but what if Voldemort marks Neville as an equal? The lightning scar and the spell that merged Harry and Voldemort's souls are pretty strong evidence that Harry is the chosen one. Nevel doesn't seem to have that kind of connection. So have we hit a brick wall here? Is it even possible to defend Neville with this single piece of evidence blocking our path? Well, it turns out we've been asking the wrong question. It's not about whether Harry or Neville is the one. Both are chosen at the same time.

About that to make them the chosen two, I guess? I don't know. Anyway, without any of us realizing it, JK Rowling has been teaching all of us Potterheads a little bit of quantum physics. There is a well-known quantum physics principle called the "many-worlds" interpretation that was coined by Bryce Dewitt. As we move forward in time, there are many possible futures for us, while we wait for it to happen, each possible future is real. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Let me put it this way: tomorrow I could have cereal for breakfast or who knows, maybe I'll have leftover cake.

Both futures are real events, but the "Many Worlds"

theory

says that I decide which of those real futures I participate in by choosing to eat that incredible piece of cake. Because, let's face it. We all know that's the future I'm going to choose because chocolate frosting is awesome, and yeah, sure, I'll regret it for the rest of the day, but that alternate future, where I'm super dumb and choose to eat. cereal and probably do some push-ups or whatever. Ehh it sucks just thinking about it, but yeah, that's real too. I just chose not to participate in it, so screw your health!

It was the point at which I made the decision to obey my sweet tooth that determined the path I took, but history and the future still have all those other options within them. Think of the past and future as a tree with a lot of branches. We choose which branch to follow, but the entire tree still exists; And that brings us back to the problem of Harry and Neville. Harry, according to the prophecy is the Chosen One. Neville according to the prophecy is also the Chosen One. Think about it, we just went over all the reasons why either of them could fulfill the prophecy.

There is nothing so remarkable about Harry that makes him more likely to be a hero of the wizarding world than Neville. Except for one thing, one choice. In this case the only person who had the ability to choose between these two was Voldemort himself of the two equally real chosen ones, he could have decided to attack, he chose Harry Potter. He could have just as easily chosen Neville Longbottom, but by choosing Harry he gave him an entire future, a complete identity, as "the boy who lived" in a strange way. Harry should thank Voldemort, otherwise he would have been good, Nevel;

And if you think this theory sounds a little far-fetched, listen to someone you trust: "Sir, I knew the answer all along and I chose not to share it with you until the end," Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore actually explains this theory to Harry and points out that it could have gone either way, between who Voldemort chose to attack, Harry or Neville. In fact, from the beginning of the series we can see that Dumbledore understands these parallels. In a way, Dumbledore and Hogwarts Proper treat these two children as if they could be the chosen ones. Probably because Neville and Harry represented equally likely branches of the story.

In the first installment, Dumbledore recognizes Neville's contributions and awards him points for his bravery and for standing up to his friends. These points, not Harry's, end up being the deciding factor in Gryffindor's victory over Slytherin for the House Cup (Idc, I'm a Ravenclaw. ) What seemed like Dumbledore having favorites was actually him tending to the other chosen one. Nevel is also the only one of the two individuals that we know for certain that he had a conversation with the Sorting Hat about which house to go to. Only he and Harry have the self-determination to do this. After his first year, Neville repeatedly demonstrated that he was intelligent and capable, in many cases more capable than Harry himself.

He provided Harry with civet in fourth year, saving him from failure in the Triwizard Tournament, helping the "chosen one" fulfill his destiny. While Harry was moping in the desert for most of movie seven and part seven 2, Neville stayed at Hogwarts even as dark magic was taking over him. He actively subverted his teachers and even endured torture and beatings to continue helping Harry. He literally formed an army, Dumbledore's army, and led his companions to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Neville did all this. Neville Longbottom. The parallels to him only get closer as the series ends. In the final battle with Voldemort, it was Neville who pulled Godric Gryffindor's sword from the Sorting Hat and then used it to kill Guinea;

Voldemort's last Horcrux. It was this and this specific act alone that made it possible for Harry to take down Voldemort. The only other person to ever demonstrate this ability by pulling a sword out of a hat, Harry Potter, and in momentsAt the end of the battle, in movie 8, part 2 of number seven, when everyone thinks Harry is dead, we see a person. step in to take his place; To defend him directly and fight Voldemort, Neville. Harry Potter is not actually the chosen one. There is not a single chosen one. Both Harry and Neville are the chosen ones and each represents the timeline of him as this character, even if we only get to see one side of the story in the movies.

Perhaps JK Rowling established this parallel to demonstrate something about fate or about the decisions we make that impact the rest of the world or that it doesn't matter what hand is dealt, what matters are the small acts of bravery. That prophecies, for all their value, do not make you less special because in the end what they really show is this: they are the decisions you make in your life. Anyway, that's just a theory, a

film

theory and cut! And next time we will prove that Ron is actually Voldemort! Hope for? You should continue your

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