Green eyes
Aug. 20th, 2004 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
louiseluxFollowing on from the discussion yesterday about Petunia's eyes being different from her sister's, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jenocclumency wondered if anyone else in the books has green eyes, and biascut broke my brain and pointed out that the only other character who does is... Dobby! JKR frquently mentions his eye colour : '... his enormous, green, tennis-ball-shaped eyes ...'. JKR has hinted in inteviews that green eyes are linked to some sort of special ability. Is she trying to make a point here?
Are Lily and Harry related in some way to house elves, or to Dobby? Did Lily save Harry because she had house elf powers? I can't remember which book mentions it (GoF?) but house elves have magical powers that in some respects can be stronger than wizarding powers.
It doesn't seem quite so ridiculous if you consider that JKR has made a real feature of the way wizards treat house elves, both in Hermione's campaign and in Kreacher's betrayal of Sirius, not forgetting Dobby and Winky. Tied up with house elf equality is the whole notion of wizarding superiority over any other species, which even people like Sirius, one of the good guys, takes for granted (as Dumbledore says, he has no respect for Kreacher and sees house elves as 'inferiors'). Obviously, it's also the heart of Voldemort's pureblood ideology. I'd be very surprised indeed if the final book didn't include some sort of resolution of the inequality present in the wizarding world.
Of course, the green eyes could mean something entirely different. But both Harry and Dobby have knobbly knees, too!
Another idea that I thought made a lot of sense and is perhaps nothing to do with house elves, istemaris's idea that Lily got her magical powers in a special way, rather than simply being a born a witch. To me that idea fits in with Petunia's extreme hatred, which seems to be built on jealousy of her sister. Lily was chosen to become special and Petunia wasn't. Perhaps Lily wasn't born with green eyes, but gained them in some other way? That would tie in with Petunia being so adamant that her sister was a 'freak'.
jenocclumency wondered if anyone else in the books has green eyes, and biascut broke my brain and pointed out that the only other character who does is... Dobby! JKR frquently mentions his eye colour : '... his enormous, green, tennis-ball-shaped eyes ...'. JKR has hinted in inteviews that green eyes are linked to some sort of special ability. Is she trying to make a point here? Are Lily and Harry related in some way to house elves, or to Dobby? Did Lily save Harry because she had house elf powers? I can't remember which book mentions it (GoF?) but house elves have magical powers that in some respects can be stronger than wizarding powers.
It doesn't seem quite so ridiculous if you consider that JKR has made a real feature of the way wizards treat house elves, both in Hermione's campaign and in Kreacher's betrayal of Sirius, not forgetting Dobby and Winky. Tied up with house elf equality is the whole notion of wizarding superiority over any other species, which even people like Sirius, one of the good guys, takes for granted (as Dumbledore says, he has no respect for Kreacher and sees house elves as 'inferiors'). Obviously, it's also the heart of Voldemort's pureblood ideology. I'd be very surprised indeed if the final book didn't include some sort of resolution of the inequality present in the wizarding world.
Of course, the green eyes could mean something entirely different. But both Harry and Dobby have knobbly knees, too!
Another idea that I thought made a lot of sense and is perhaps nothing to do with house elves, is
temaris's idea that Lily got her magical powers in a special way, rather than simply being a born a witch. To me that idea fits in with Petunia's extreme hatred, which seems to be built on jealousy of her sister. Lily was chosen to become special and Petunia wasn't. Perhaps Lily wasn't born with green eyes, but gained them in some other way? That would tie in with Petunia being so adamant that her sister was a 'freak'.
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Date: 2004-08-20 06:04 am (UTC)*giggle*
Seriously, though, you could be on to something!
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Date: 2004-08-20 07:42 am (UTC)Well, taking into account Temaris's theory about house elves possibly being the ancestors, or having a common ancestry with wizards, it might not be so outlandish. Just very, very unlikely:) Although at this stage, I rather like the King Arthur theory (HBP=Arthur Weasley).
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Date: 2004-08-20 07:03 am (UTC)JKR has been fairly cagey about what really happened in the wars before the house elves were bound, and what the house elves were before then. I seem to recall that they allied with gnomes? Goblins? Something like that. Maybe the house elves were wizards... *g* I think they were specifically described as non-human though, so maybe not.
But it would set the cats among the pigeons. *g*
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Date: 2004-08-20 07:51 am (UTC)It would make sense if all magical beings had some sort of common ancestry (ie, the source of the magic), so in that case I don't see why wizards and house elves couldn't be related in distant way.
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Date: 2004-08-20 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 07:48 am (UTC)If the theory is true - then how did Lily get her house elf blood? Through illict upstairs-downstairs house elf shagging? I think I need the bleach here...
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Date: 2004-08-20 09:38 am (UTC)*barfs quietly in the corner*
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Date: 2004-08-20 02:35 pm (UTC)But then, Dobby *is* very fond of Harry. Protective, you might say, to an almost parental extent...
*runs*