STAR WARS & HARRY POTTER

Beyond Laser Swords and Magic Wands

by Paola Forcellini

<--- FIRST PART

The good villains: Darth and Snape.

Perhaps Snape is the character who lets us change our mind continuously. Guilty, innocent, wicked, good, repentant, liar, who knows? Only one thing we are sure of – he is always in conflict. For this reason, he already reminds us of somebody else. What is Severus Snape’s role? Like Tom’s and Anakin’s, his past is sad, poor and stormy. Like Tom’s, his father was a Muggle (a shame to be erased) and his mother was a witch. As Tom, and as Anakin, he suddenly has his name changed into Half -Blood Prince. He chooses it personally, like Tom, but he will bear it just for a period, like Ani. Finally, like him, he will repent . He is half Muggle but also a noble wizard. A prince, just like his mother Eileen’s surname – Prince - who was a Slytherin as well. But, as Anakin, he loves her while he hates his father and he’s deeply in love with a girl: Lily Potter, Harry’s future mother. To him, she is the dearest thing in the world. This relationship is very difficult, painful and secret. She eventually chooses James, however she will be linked somehow to Severus, who wants to become powerful to redeem his past. During the Sorting Ceremony, the Sorting Hat doesn’t show any doubts about his House: Slytherin. On the contrary, Lily is assigned to Gryffindor, so things get complicated. Lily would like to bring on their friendship, but she doesn’t like his friends, as well as the fact he finds black magic so attractive. Obi-Wan, Yoda and Dumbledore always alerted their apprentices. ”Beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression, the dark side of the Force (and Magic) are they. […] But the dark side is not stronger. […] Quicker, easier, more seductive,” the three say. Luke and Harry will not succumb to the dark side, but Anakin, Severus and Tom will. Anakin considers Palpatine the highest example of power, as Voldemort is considered by Severus. Frustrated with the sad experiences of their life, they will choose their new Masters’ paths. Anakin was fatherless. Severus had one, but he was a Muggle and Snape was ashamed of him. So they see, in Palpatine and Voldemort, the perfect paternal figures they have always longed for. And they choose to follow them.“I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine,” Severus tells Lily. As we well know, the love story between Anakin and Padmé ends rather badly. She doesn’t accept Anakin’s passing to the other side, though, and maybe still in good faith, he tells her “I’m doing it for you. To protect you.” Padmé even dies because of him. And somehow, Lily dies because of Severus as well.

Anyway, both the boys will never stop loving and thinking about them, though they will play the part of the villains for a long time. It is just Snape who reveals the prophecy (in both tales there is one!) to the Dark Lord. According to this prophecy, Voldemort has an antagonist “[…] and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives […].” So, though indirectly, it is Snape who puts his lord on the Potter family’s tracks. But there’s a promise he wants Voldemort to make - and of course the wicked wizard will not keep - not to harm Lily. When Dumbledore tells him that she was killed as well – though because she interposed herself between the Dark Lord and baby Harry, in order to save his life - Severus repents and turns back to the good side. He will go on attending Voldemort and his devotees, but exclusively as a Dumbledore’s spy. Because of this, he will maintain his fame of “good villain” until the end. At he same time, he promises Dumbledore to protect Harry, though he will be always rude to him, above all because in Harry he sees his enemy James, who ‘stole’ Lily. Also Darth tries to be harsh and cynic to Luke, but he will not dare to kill him, in spite of his threats and despite bringing him before the Emperor. But when Palpatine is about to kill Luke, Darth will not allow him to and will save his son’s life. Moreover, we cannot forget that, as Anakin kills Obi, Severus kills Dumbledore, and in both cases the victims allowed it willingly. There was even a secret deal between Snape and Dumbledore. The old wizard was ill and would die soon anyway, but as he was still a proud and brave fighter who didn’t want to die in bed. So he prefers to let himself killed in a clash. On the other hand, Obi realizes that he failed with Anakin; he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes he made with him, so he prefers Yoda to train Luke this time (if Yoda, a long time before, had consented to train Anakin, who knows how it could have ended up!). But it’s necessary to hurry, as Yoda is very old. And perhaps also Obi prefers dying by fighting than ending his days in bed. So he raises his light sabre, looks at Luke from afar and smiles, while Darth wounds him to the death. “Remember, the Force will be with you, always,” Obi whispers to Luke. “The fight must go on,” Dumbledore tells Harry. Snape will be killed by Voldemort, who never considered him a friend; he has always taken advantage of him, and when he realizes he needs to kill him, he does it carelessly. Just like the Emperor. Once Palpatine notices that Luke is almost stronger than his father, he wants to turn him to his side and get rid of Darth. And he wants Luke to kill Darth.

Harry as Voldemort’s son? It would be possible… but only in Star Wars

So J.K. Rowling said, laughing, in an interview before the release of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Parallelisms between Anakin and Tom and Severus are several, as well as between Luke and Harry.

Both orphans. Both raised by their uncles, though both were told about their origins. Both their families - through good (Luke’s) or bad (Harry’s) ways - try, until they can, to keep the two boys away from the world their parents belonged to. Both Obi-Wan and Dumbledore suffered a lot from abandoning them, but to have the children grown up in an ordinary family would be the best solution. They would be safe with their uncles. Obi and Dumbledore want them to be raised in a humble background. Indeed, this will be one of these two boys’ main features in common. When he was 11 years old, Anakin built droids, while Luke just helped his uncle with his jobs; when he was 11 years old, Voldemort could move objects by using the strength of his mind, while Harry’s main concern at that time was avoiding his cousin’s tricks. Luke and Harry live a very simple life, made of little things. Humility, as well as the wish for nothing more than what they already have, will be their first strength. But both are predestined to do great things, and one day they will be called to clash with their past – and future. As for Luke, the messengers are two droids, C-3PO and R2; as for Harry, an owl. Luke, in the registered message brought by C1, sees a girl (Princess Leia, his sister, though he doesn’t know yet) begging help to a certain Obi-Wan Kenobi. In a nearby place there is an old hermit, Ben Kenobi, whom Luke already knows. The old man at once reveals to Luke that he is really Obi-Wan. The owl takes a letter which says that Harry is invited to attend Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore wants him to. But Harry’s uncles don’t want to allow this, and, as owls keep on bringing more and more messages, Harry’s uncles leave home for an old, deserted tower on a rock in the sea, of course taking Harry with them. Unlike Anakin and Tom, at once enthusiastic, Luke and Harry certainly are happy, but at the same time they hesitate. But the upcoming situations will drive them to go: Luke goes back home and finds it devastated, and his uncles dead, while Hagrid comes in order to rescue Harry and takes the boy with him. In both cases it is worth leaving, isn’t it? Now they haven’t anything to lose. Their ‘door’ to the new life is the same for both: a sort of pub. At The Leaky Cauldron for the first time Harry meets wizards and witches, while in another spot on Tatooine, Obi and Luke find help. They rent a spaceship belonging to Han Solo and his friend Chewbacca. In order to fight, weapons are necessary. Other parallelism: Obi gives Luke the laser sword which belonged to his father Anakin, while the wand that fits Harry best is exactly the twin of Voldemort’s. As we know, Voldemort is not Harry’s father, but he left upon him his ‘genetic’ clue: the scar, through which – though his intention was to kill the baby – he passed his powers on him (for instance, Harry can talk to snakes) and makes Harry feel his presence. And, after all, Snape almost fathered Harry. First Obi, then Yoda train Luke, while Dumbledore (who, besides Obi’s features, shows the green Master’s same wisdom) takes care of Harry. Obi and Dumbledore failed with Anakin and Tom, but this will not happen with Luke and Harry. As it was said before, humility is these two new chosens’ first strength. They sacrifice themselves a lot to training. Unlike Obi, who controlled Anakin too much, Yoda – though at first didn’t want to – trains Luke in a completely different way. “You must unlearn what you have learned. […] Try not. Do …or do not. There is no try. […] Size matters not. No. No difference. Only different in your mind,” he says. So does Dumbledore. Moreover, the two boys have lots of faithful friends who always follow them in their adventures. With Luke there are Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and the two droids, while Harry has Hermione, Ron and all his family, and Hagrid. Eventually, Captain Lando Calrissian and many others (the Ewoks, etc.) will join the first group; as well as Sirius Black and others (Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks etc.) will always support Harry. So, here is their second strength: friendship, which, on the contrary, Voldemort and Palpatine consider a sign of weakness, and both state this. Anyway, Luke’s and Harry’s lives, though not as hard as Ani’s and Tom’s, are marked by sorrow as well. Obi, Yoda and Dumbledore alert them. “You will have to be strong,” Albus tells Harry. “ Fear you will have,” Yoda tells Luke. We have to notice their first meeting with the antagonists, who represent at the same time those they have a deep link with and also the dark side of themselves. Both clashes are set in a dark wood. Luke sees a sort of phantom Darth. They fight with their swords. Luke beheads Darth, whose mask explodes and reveals Luke’s face. Harry meets Voldemort, who, unlike Darth, is real but weak and feeble as if he were a sort of ghost. Before Voldemort, Harry’s scar starts burning. So, also in this case, Harry realizes that he’s dealing with his enemy, and that he shares something with him. The second time, they really face their enemies. Both clashes are made of swords and words. Darth tells Luke that he’s his father, and invites him to join the dark side of the Force. “Join me…and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son,” he tells Luke in “The Empire Strikes Back”. But Luke refuses and, rather than joining Darth, he let himself fall down through the empty and deep pipe. In “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, we find more or less the same plot. Voldemort, even though he’s still a “parasite” growing on the back of the head of Professor Quirrell, introduces himself and orders Harry to give him the Sorcerer’s Stone and join him. “Together, we can bring your parents back. […] Together, we will do extraordinary things,” he tells him. Of course Harry doesn’t listen to him. Unlike Anakin and Tom, Luke and Harry don’t long for more power. Thanks to humility, courage, will and friendship, the two heroes manage to overcome doubts, uncertainties and temptations. They successfully defeat external evil, which could have grown in themselves as well. Passions and pride are under control . Also other tests they are called to face will be similar: in Jabba the Hutt’s palace cellars, Luke faces and kills the Rancor, a large meat-eating monster, while Harry faces and kills the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. Luke and Harry succeed in winning the final clashes against the antagonists, once again thanks to humility, bravery, friendship and love. Luke fights his father, who everybody consider a wicked person. Luke, on the contrary, realizes that there’s still something good under the mask and that his father’s true self is not Darth – which is only the name of that mask he has been bearing for years – but is still Anakin. According to Luke, the Emperor couldn’t destroy completely Anakin’s good. Luke loves his father and he doesn’t want to kill him. Indeed, he’s strongly convinced that there are still some chances for Anakin to be saved. His confidence is so great that he talks about it to his friends, and in the following meeting-clash with Darth (it was Luke that wanted it to happen, just as Harry wants to complete his mission) he states it openly to him. Darth denies anything, by stating that the dark side is the best, and that the name ‘Anakin’ has no longer any meaning for him. And, in order to demonstrate that he still supports Emperor Palpatine, he brings Luke before him. Actually, as Severus has Harry in charge - though despising him - Darth is acting in the same way. By now, Luke’s love has warmed his heart. Palpatine knew very well Anakin’s weakness and knows Luke’s as well. First of all, his affections. As it was said before, according to Voldemort and the Emperor, love feelings mean weakness, while Luke and Harry always considered them strong . Indeed, they will win thanks to them. Just as he did successfully with Anakin, Palpatine starts bashing Luke’s friends. “Your faith in your friends is your weakness. […] They have failed, they will not survive. There’s no escape,” he says, fully realizing that, for them, Luke would do anything, even killing, if necessary. And murders lead to the dark side. Anakin fell because of them. Voldemort, in order to obtain immortality, tore his soul and inserted it into the Horcruxes. Murders are indispensable to make it possible. Luke’s patience begins to waver and the Emperor wants it to. In the cellar of the Department of Mysteries, the same happens. Harry’s friends are fighting the DeathEaters, Bellatrix has just killed Sirius Black, and Harry obviously is furious. He runs after Bellatrix into another room. And what he’s going to do to her is not good at all. Also Luke is about to murder Palpatine, but Darth stops him (to defend the Emperor or maybe to prevent his son from committing his same mistakes?). So Luke starts fighting Darth, but this is not what he wants and he states it again. On the contrary, this is just what Palpatine wants from him: if Luke kills Darth, he will become his new ally. Also Harry is about to murder Bellatrix - he has just played the Cruciatus curse - and in that precise moment Voldemort appears and incites him. “Give in your anger. Use your aggressive feelings. Let the hate flow through you,” Voldemort and Palpatine shout at Luke and Harry. But there comes Dumbledore and stops Harry. It’s the memory of Sirius and the other friends that will make Harry recover; it’s Luke’s love which makes him resist. And thanks to this love, Darth repents. As Luke keeps on refusing to turn to the dark side, Palpatine understands that nothing more can be done and starts playing his Dark Force to make him die. This is precisely the moment when Darth chooses to save his son and throws Palpatine down into the pipe ( “If only he had done it a long time before,” we all said!). But while throwing the Emperor down, he’s wounded by his deadly magic. He feels that this time he will not survive and asks his son to take the mask off his face. Luke is desperate as he couldn’t save his father’s life, but Anakin assures him that he, on the contrary, has succeed and that he was right. As for Harry Potter’s final clash, Voldemort doesn’t repent at all and, once again, he tries to kill Harry (who, in the meanwhile, has been between life and death, just as Luke while he was struck by Palpatine), but finally he dies out of his favourite curse, the “Avada Kedavra”. Emperor Palpatine, while falling, dies out of his magic as well. The movie “Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows” hasn’t come out yet, but, according to what J.K. Rowling wrote “Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snake-like face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse.” Will we see Tom Riddle again? Will Voldemort’s mask, just like Darth’s, disappear? The answer is up to David Yates, the director of the last three Harry Potter’s movies, who, as he himself declared, grew up watching …Star Wars! Once back to the ordinary life, Anakin’s spirit, together with Obi’s and Yoda’s , will watch over Luke, while Harry will call his son Albus Severus.

Other characters, other analogies

As it was said at the beginning, though the deepest parallelisms are found in the main – both good and bad – characters, there are many others in the supporting ones.

Harry’s best friend is Ron Weasley. He will never be as powerful as Harry and he’s not predestined to be. But he’s brave too, and he always supports Harry. His statements, rich in sarcasm, are the funniest. He’s ironic and appears cynical. Does he perhaps remind us of Han Solo? Two episodes in particular are very similar: when Han Solo is frozen in carbonite and delivered to the bounty hunter Jabba the Hutt and when Ron is brought asleep down into the abyss of the Black Lake, kept as a “hostage”, by the Sirens. The favourite target of Ron’s sarcasm, especially at the beginning, is the intelligent, wise and precise Hermione Granger; just as Han often addresses his ironic remarks to Princess Leia, who shares a lot of features with Hermione. Both are very strong and brave girls, but they hide tender feelings. Leia and Luke are twins; Hermione loves Harry as if he was her brother. Han falls in love with Leia and this is precisely what finally happens to Ron and Hermione. Then there is Hagrid who, with his gigantic height and his thick mane of hair, resembles Chewbacca a lot. Hagrid, who likes odd creatures very much, perhaps would take Chewie in charge very willingly! R2 and C-3PO could find a parallelism in the inseparable twins Fred and George, or in Neville Longbottom. They always play tricks and cause trouble, but their contribution is indeed remarkable. Captain Lando Calrissian , at first involved in suspicious matters - even though he has always been an old friend of Han Solo’s - finally allies with the rebels by giving a very significant help in the final battle. In Harry Potter, Sirius Black belonged to a family devotee to Voldemort, but he hated all his wicked relatives and he left them. Eventually became Harry’s godfather. The nice Ewoks resemble the Centaurs of the Enchanted Forest. Off-putting and suspicious at first, they prove to be pleasant and ready to fight. Moreover, the Ewoks live in a wood as well

But the most important thing is that, in both tales, the “ones” Luke and Harry would have been unlikely to make it without all these supporting characters’ help. None of them is a superhero, none of them is called to do great things, many of them are awkward and goofy, but their small helpful contributions will count in the end, though the direct clash with the antagonists is reserved to the two heroes only. Luke and Harry - strong and frail at the same time- always shared joys and sorrows with their friends, and have always been ready to sacrifice themselves in order to help them. Altruism, friendship, humility and love won. Beyond laser swords and magic wands.