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Hey brother!
Guys, the Harry Potter books paint Voldemort as the big bad,
and for sure he is, at least from Harry's point of view,
and also basically every other person
on Earth's point of view.
But if you zoom out a little bit,
you'll find that the main plot that's actually going on
is not actually Voldemort versus Harry,
but rather Voldemort versus Death.
Immortality, this is Voldemort's ultimate goal
and really the entire reason
that Harry got roped into the story to begin with.
And if he had just merely set up his horcruxes
in actual secret and just let bygones by bygones,
he would have succeeded in this, at least kind of.
What I mean by kind of is that the horcruxes
technically always could be destroyed,
but only if they were found,
so that's how he'd still be mortal.
But then the prophecy rears its big old ugly head
and claims that the one with the power to vanquish
the Dark Lord will be born at the end of July
to parents who have thrice defied him.
Great use of the word thrice, by the way.
Right up there with rocket ship for top words ever.
Anyway though, despite Voldemort's almost certain victory,
fear gets the best of him and he has to go
and try to kill Harry, which of course he can't,
thus setting up the plot for the rest of the books,
where Harry is just constantly thwarting him.
And the important thing to remember here
is that despite how much Voldemort hates Harry,
and trust me, he hates Harry,
killing Harry is only actually his goal at all
because it helps him on his path
to defeating his true enemy, Death.
And yet we all know that Voldemort
ultimately ends up losing this battle.
Death wins, Harry wins,
which kinda makes me wonder, is Harry Death?
(suspenseful music)
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All right, so Harry killed Voldemort, so what?
I mean, plenty of other characters kill other characters
and that doesn't make each of the killers
Death himself, right?
That's correct, but as always,
Harry and Voldemort are a bit of a unique case.
For one, I think it's safe to say
that everyone is attempting to avoid death
at all times, right?
Or at the very least, prolonging death
by doing healthy things, like exercising and eating healthy.
Also, I don't know who needs to hear this,
but go drink a glass of water.
Also, take a deep breath and unclench your jaw.
Better, right?
You are also now aware of your breathing, moving on!
Despite any measures you may take though,
I think that we're all aware of the fact
that death is ultimately inevitable.
Voldemort, not so much the case.
To him, death is just something that,
if you don't take the necessary precautions, will happen.
And you better believe he is taking
those necessary precautions.
Actually, I'm not sure if necessary is the right word.
What he's doing is breaking the rules of magic and nature.
These are the steps that he's taking
specifically in his fight against death,
and also I'm just gonna say it, hydrating.
Honestly I know this is a little bit
ridiculous to think about,
but if his patterns of behavior are any indication,
Voldemort himself is jogging 30 to 45 minutes a day.
At the very least, power walking.
Actually I love to imagine him in full robe
and those white New Balance tennis shoes,
you know the ones, for arch support.
He's just strolling right on past the Flamel residence
being like, "Eat that, Nicholas!"
"I'll show you immortality."
Honestly guys, I am loving health nut Voldemort.
(upbeat retro music)
'Cause he has to be though, right?
This guy hates death.
Healthy habits aside though, on top of everything else,
Death's own Hallows are thrown into the mix,
creations by Death.
And as always, this is where the big tell is,
the Elder Wand.
Honestly I will agree with you guys,
I cannot believe the number of different ways
that we've been able to look at
this one particular plot device,
but today we have yet another,
thanks to viewer Wesley Morris,
who sent in a unique idea that really got us thinking.
Their idea is that Death is actually a goblin
and that the real reason that the Elder Wand
doesn't operate for anybody to its truest potential
until Harry literally comes back to the grave
is because the wand itself is operating
under the goblin rules of ownership,
which in case you have forgotten,
at least according to Bill Weasley,
is that the true owner of any object
is the creator of that object.
It may be sold,
but instead of ownership passing to that new person,
it's considered more of a rental.
A rental that is until death, at which point,
that point should be returned to its creator.
It's the exact argument that Griphook is making
about the Sword of Gryffindor,
that it may have belonged to Gryffindor,
but it should've gone back to the creator after he was gone.
And you can see right away how this might make sense
with the Elder Wand.
Death gives the wand to Antioch,
who then goes and brags about how he has
this super powerful wand and is killed 12 hours later.
And at that point, if Death is a goblin,
the wand should be returned to its creator, Death.
But obviously, it instead just goes
from wizard to wizard through the centuries,
until it eventually ends up with Harry.
But before that and along that path,
it manages to kill a bunch of super powerful wizards,
which sort of gives the wand itself this Trojan Horse idea.
"We created this thing
"that the wizards are gonna think are really cool,
"and what it's actually gonna do
"is wreak havoc amongst themselves."
Very specifically and notably amongst the top ranks,
the most powerful wizards,
which also feels like it could be the kind of thing
that the goblins may want.
This really isn't a super in-your-face detail
about the book, but if you comb through it,
you'll find that just about every single year
of Harry's education, he's learning specifically
about goblin rebellions.
There's no doubt about it that Voldemort's reign is intense.
It's threatening, terrifying.
But through the actual lens of history,
it's not a particularly long stretch of time,
while the tension between goblins and wizards,
on the other hand, seems to stretch back
really far into history, unlike this little war
that Voldemort keeps wanting to have happen.
It's not a thing, man, let it go!
I'm just kidding, a lot of people died, it's not funny.
This idea is actually even further reinforced
when we're able to listen in on the conversation
between Griphook, Dean, Dirk Crestwell and Ted Tonks.
Ted asks the goblins, "And where do you two fit in?
"I, er, had the impression the goblins
"were for You-Know-Who, on the whole."
"You had a false impression, we take no sides.
"This is a wizards' war."
Personally I read that as,
"We have our own problems with you.
"We are not going to get involved
"in a fight amongst yourselves."
That being said though,
I'm still not sure that there's quite enough there
to ensure that Death was, in fact, a goblin.
I mean, after all, even in the present,
Griphook says that wizards won't share
their information about wandlore.
"That is immaterial!
"Wizards refuse to share the secrets of wandlore
"with other magical beings,
"they deny us the possibility of extending our powers!"
It feels like if the one specific thing you're hung up on
is wandlore, then it's maybe a little bit unlikely
to believe that your particular race was the one
to create the most powerful wand ever.
That being said, I'm not sure that Death itself
would be the one to take sides in wars either.
Are wars good for Death?
On that note,
what alignment do you even think Death actually is?
Lawful neutral?
True neutral?
Neutral good?
Lawful evil?
Typically, it would seem like Death
would be the air quotes bad guy,
but is this one of those instances
where the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
On the other hand though, I very much think
that it is a possibility that the wand itself
operates under the goblin rules of ownership,
meaning that after Antioch's death,
the ownership of the wand would shift back to Death
for years, centuries, until Harry comes along.
And the ever-important detail here
is that we absolutely know for sure
that Harry was the master of the Elder Wand,
specifically because he is able to use it
to repair his old wand.
But this is the only remarkable thing
that we ever see the Elder Wand actually do,
otherwise it's really hard to say if anybody else
was truly the master of it.
Voldemort even discusses this very idea with Snape.
"My Lord, I do not understand.
"You have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."
"No, said Voldemort, I have performed my usual magic.
"I am extraordinary, but this wand, no.
"It has not revealed the wonders it has promised.
"I feel no difference between this wand
"and the one I procured from Ollivander
"all those years ago."
Dumbledore claims that he is able to attain the wand,
and we do get to see him use it
in a battle against Voldemort,
but also, at the end of the day, Voldemort survives.
And now that I think about it,
the idea of being able to kill someone
despite the fact that they have horcruxes
almost feels like a unique power
the wand could have possessed.
At the very least, he should have been able
to return him to the Mist.
Also, what is this whole idea, most powerful wand ever?
Avada Kedavra is literally already unblockable.
Like, what more do you need?
And on top of that, don't even get me started
on Grindewald, right?
He has the wand!
Supposedly, he's the master of it,
and still loses to Dumbledore.
If anything, Voldemort literally did better than Grindewald,
who had the Elder Wand, with his own wand.
So maybe the reason
that everybody keeps failing with this wand
is because it has one true master,
its original maker, Death,
which brings me back to my original point.
Harry is Death.
I mean, we all know that Harry is the master of Death,
but wouldn't you also say that Death is the master of Death?
And we've talked about this here on the channel before,
that maybe Dumbledore himself is Death.
I mean, he's the one who doles out the Deathly Hallows,
and when Harry ultimately does die,
he greets Dumbledore as an old friend.
But perhaps it is Dumbledore
who's greeting Death like an old friend,
because consider this, Harry also determines the fate
of all three Deathly Hallows.
He's the one who decides to leave the Stone in the forest,
he returns the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's grave
and he keeps the Cloak and passes it on
to his own son one day.
Curiously, the goblin analogy also seems to continue
to play out well in this situation.
When everybody is stuck at Shell Cottage,
he's talking to Griphook and Griphook says,
"You are an unusual wizard, Harry Potter.
"If there was a wizard of whom I would believe
"that they did not seek personal gain,
"it would be you, Harry Potter."
I know it seems like he said Harry Potter
one too many times in the same sentence,
but those are actually broken up a little bit more
in their own paragraph.
That being said though,
I actually think this a highly underrated line
from the entire Harry Potter series,
because exactly what Griphook is saying there
is pretty much what allowed Harry to receive the Stone
from the Mirror of Erised back seven books ago.
- Only the person who wanted to find the Stone,
find it but not use it, would be able to get it.
- You mean, it's still true, after all this time?
- Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it.
Always!
- Yeah!
- The point is here, despite the goblins' ironclad belief
about how the possession of objects works,
Harry is still the exception, because he is Death.
I also can't ignore the decision that comes
before he talks to Griphook, which is the decision
to talk to Griphook before Ollivander.
In this moment, Harry is trying to decide,
Hallows or horcruxes, who do I talk to first?
Is it the wizard or the goblin?
Which one is the right path?
And guess what?
By not choosing the Elder Wand
and talking to Griphook first,
he proves Griphook's point
and ultimately still ends up with the Elder Wand.
But what I'm trying to say
is that when it comes to the Elder Wand,
Harry has to make a decision
between the wizard and the goblin,
and the goblin is the right choice.
It's subtle, but I think this helps reinforce the idea
that the Elder Wand considers the goblin way of thinking
when determining its true master.
It will only ever truly belong to its creator,
and yet Harry is the only one we ever get to see
truly use it, meaning the boy who lived is Death.
(imitates explosion)
As for my question of the day,
I know that we have tackled the Elder Wand
from a million different directions,
but let me know, which theory do you most subscribe to
in the towel section down below.
But as always, thank you so much for watching.
Be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already.
If you'd like to see some more Harry Potter action from us,
you can check out this video right here,
where we discuss whether or not Dumbledore is Death.
But otherwise, guys, until next time, bye!