darth_stitch | Deja vu? Or how I deal with insomnia...

Am currently re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (Hey, I may read fast but Real Life can be HELL if you want to do a re-read.)

Anyways, I noticed that OotP shares A LOT of similarities to my second favorite Star Wars movie - Empire Strikes Back. No - Voldemort does not tell Harry "I am your father." Please - I think JKR has lots more originality than that. That was one of the reasons I didn't start reading the books in the first place - I thought JKR was going to spring THAT one on the readers and I pretty much thought George Lucas had already cornered the "father" thing. Fortunately, JKR never did.

But still, since this book seems to be the "turning point" for the entire series, Order of the Phoenix does share stuff in common with Empire Strikes Back - THE turning point of the SW trilogy. Specifically - Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter, in the stages of their respective Heroic Journeys.

Here we go:

Luke Skywalker: starts becoming more confident in his abilities as a Jedi and pilot. In ESB, Luke is the commander of Rogue Squadron, despite his very young age.

Harry Potter: gains more confidence in his abilities as a wizard - he's shown to be better in Defense Against the Dark Arts than everyone else thinks. Despite the fact that he's a student, he starts teaching his fellow students DADA and in effect becomes the "general" of "Dumbledore's Army."

Luke: His first mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead but his ghost directs Luke to the very cranky, very cantankerous Jedi Master Yoda for additional training. Yoda doesn't think Luke can make it to Jedi Knighthood; Obi-Wan pleads on his behalf and Luke states that he's ready. Yoda also has problems with Luke's father - "too much like his father is this one" and thinks Luke's likely to go the way of his old man. One of the most important aspects of Luke's traning is the control of his emotions and his impulsive, rash nature.

Harry: Dumbledore, Harry's first mentor, is unavailable one way or the other in the book. However, he brings in Harry to a second teacher/mentor - the VERY CRANKY, VERY CANTANKEROUS Severus Snape for those Occlumency lessons - additional training.

(snicker) I know, I know, Snape's not exactly short and green with long ears but they BOTH do snark a lot, don't they?

Anyway, Snape doesn't think Harry can pull it off. Plus, we all know Snape has SERIOUS problems with Harry's father. He also thinks Harry's just a miniature copy of James. And yes, those Occlumency lessons were also meant to help Harry control his emotions and his impulsive, Gryffindor nature.

Luke: Because of his disturbing visions of his friends Han and Leia, getting tortured and killed, Luke does not complete his training and rushes off to save them. However, he just ends up landing himself in trouble instead and he's the one who needs rescuing. In the meantime, he suffers the loss of a friend/older brother figure in the person of Han Solo. He also has his illusions of a perfect, heroic father shattered by Darth Vader's well-known and classic revelation. In effect, he loses that father figure. So he rages at his mentor - Obi-Wan Kenobi. "Ben why did you lie to me?" And Ben would later on give him that "certain point of view" spiel about the truth.

Harry: Because of his disturbing visions of Sirius getting tortured and killed, he runs off to rescue the guy. But ends up landing in more trouble and needs rescuing himself. He's also never managed to complete his Occlumency lessons because of the incident with Snape's pensieve. Sirius, among others, rushes in to rescue Harry but we all know what happens to the Dog, right? Harry loses his father/older brother figure. Also, he's also had his illusions of his perfect father shattered by what he's seen in Snape's pensieve. When he confronts Remus and Sirius with that - he gets all that b.s. about "we were teenagers" etc. Also, in the end, Harry rages against his missing mentor - Dumbledore, who ends up explaining the motives and reasoning behind his actions to a still-angry and grieving Harry.

So what do you think? Close enough? Heh.

My mind takes weird turns sometimes...