TheHarry Potterbooks have been around long enough to face significant criticism, but HBO’s remake can address one issue using a magical secret. Of course, the vast majority of criticisms surrounding this series have revolved around the films. These movies left out a great deal of Harry’s story, and HBO’s remake is a chance to set things straight. Still, even the book story can be improved.
ThoughHBO’sHarry PotterTV showhas been advertised as a book-faithful adaptation, this isn’t to say that things will play out on screen exactly as they did on the page. In many ways, this simply isn’t possible. Harry’s inner dialogue or long conversations must be adjusted to fit the visual medium of television. In some cases, this could be a significant benefit to the new series.
For example,a common criticism of theHarry Potterbooksis the way that love was used as a solution to just about everything. Time and time again, Harry made it out of a variety of scrapes, and the answer was almost always love. This made perfect sense to the themes ofHarry Potter, but without more nuanced details, love felt like too easy a solution. However, a Wizarding world secret could help this answer work better in HBO’s TV show.
The Harry Potter Series' “Love” Solution Has Long Been Criticized
Harry survived Voldemort’s killing curse when he was a baby inHarry Potterbecause of his mother’s love. From that point on, Lily’s love continued to protect Harry to a miraculous extent. It’s a touching concept, but it has also become a long-running joke within theHarry Potterfandom. A child winning out against a Dark Lord simply because he was loved is an overly simple solution, especially in the world of fantasy.
The primary debate here revolves around the fact that love, especially the kind that exists between a mother and child, isn’t entirely unique. Harry is the chosen one inHarry Potter, but for nothing more spectacular than the love of his mother. Surely, Voldemort would have faced countless adversaries with power beyond his own, sincelove is such a common human experience.
TheHarry Pottermoviesadded fuel to the fire of this criticism, as they devoted very little time and energy to explaining why love was the answer to everything. There simply wasn’t time for all the nuance, so Harry’s repeated victories over Voldemort felt even more far-fetched. Still, even theHarry Potterbooks left a lot unsaid in this regard.
Dumbledore repeated several times in theHarry Potterbooks that magic is a mysterious and powerful branch of magic. However, he never really got into the details. There’s a purposeful cloud of mystery around the subject that pushes readers to search for clues about how love is woven throughout the story. However,it would be to theHarry PotterTV show’s benefit to bring some of this to the surface—and there’s a perfect way it could go about it.
HBO’s Harry Potter Remake Can Include The Department Of Mysteries' Most Secret Room
Though it often feels as if Dumbledore simply threw the “love” solution around, there’s a moment in theHarry Potterbooks when he pointed out just how concrete this power really is. InOrder of the Phoenix, after Harry and his friends fought theDeath Eatersin the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore told Harry what was in one of the Ministry’s most secret rooms.
The Department of Mysteries is where the Ministry of Magic does all of its most secretive experiments. Harry and his friends walked in and out of many of the department’s rooms and saw a variety of dangerous things, butthere was one room that was locked tight. Later, Dumbledore told Harry that behind that door was where the magical properties of love were being studied:
“There is a room in the Department of Mysteries,” interrupted Dumbledore, “that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”
Harry and his friends' attempts to get into this room inHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenixwere left out of the movies, and this is rather unfortunate. The “love” room’s existence allows the power that helped Harry through his adventures to feel far more tangible and measurable.It’s not just a cop-out plot device, but a true branch of magic—often underestimated, but not by those who understand it.
If we could take the perspective of a Ministry worker, at one point, and see behind that door, the magic of Harry’s survival would feel more concrete.
HBO’sHarry Potterremake could achieve something significant by including the scene in which Harry tries to get into the locked door at the Department of Mysteries, in addition to Dumbledore’s explanation. However, this is also an example of how the TV show could make a subtle change. If we could take the perspective of a Ministry worker, at one point, and see behind that door, the magic of Harry’s survival would feel more concrete.
Love Must Feel Like A More Concrete Power In The Harry Potter Remake
When looking at the more subtle aspects ofHarry Potter, it’s evident that love isn’t just a cop-out solution to Harry’s problems. There are rules involved with this unique form of magic that the general Wizarding population knows nothing about, but that are studied at theMinistry of Magicand by people like Albus Dumbledore.Harry himself never fully understands it. However, we, the audience, could.
HBO’s TV show has the opportunity to take other characters' points of view, so we could easily see one of the Ministry’s Unspeakables enter the room to perform his research.
Though some mysteries are better left alone, I’d be interested to get a glimpse of what happens behind that locked door at the Ministry of Magic. HBO’s TV show has the opportunity to take other characters' points of view, so we could easily see one of the Ministry’s Unspeakables enter the room to perform his research. We could even see a scene in which Dumbledore visits the room to learn more about Harry’s survival.
Overall, such a moment wasn’t entirely necessary for theHarry Potterbooks. However, after years of criticism around the “love"solution, HBO’s remake could finally put the debate to rest by demonstrating just how much of a concrete force love is within the magic system ofHarry Potter.
