>Harry must defeat the racist snake that lives under the schoolHow high was Rowling when she wrote this shit?
>>222771238it was a great movie though. the creepiness factor is just perfect for an under-12 audience
>>222771238what about the whole race of elves that are born to be slaves?
>>222771238she didnt write a single thingThe Jesuit Order wore HP
>>222771238Do we know if the snake is inherently racist? Or was it just doing the bidding of Voldemort both times? We only get a few insights into the Basilisk’s personality, when Harry overhears and understands it as it crawls through the pipes. I don’t think it was doing this to be overheard. Parseltongue is a rare ability, and until Harry revealed he could also do it, neither Voldemort or the Basilisk assumed they would be understood if they were overheard.Voldemort commands the Basilisk to move stealthily, target specific victims, and to use its eyes to do the killing. But that doesn’t seem to be what the Basilisk wants at all. If Harry is just overhearing it thinking aloud, it’s very clear. It wants to maul, and bite. It wants to rip, tear and presumably consume its victims. Voldemort wants it to leave dead bodies, with no direct explanation, as a message.So there’s clearly at least some disagreement there. The snake was in some kind of magical hibernation for most of its roughly thousand year long life. It is compelled to obey the heir of Slytherin, but it clearly doesn’t agree with him slavishly. I don’t think it would attack Slytherin students on principle. Having been raised and nurtured by Salazar, some sense of belonging with the house could be expected. Plus, they are pure blooded (you have to be to qualify for the house) and it was taught that pure bloods are good. I think it probably believes that, because it’s all it ever knew.But I think if Voldemort wasn’t actively ordering it to act like it did, it would be much more violent. All students of gryffindor would be in danger. So would all mud bloods of the other two houses, and almost everything in the Forest, especially the spiders.
>>222771965If it was set loose, I think it would attack Harry. Godric Gryffindor was be the worst offender of the houses from Slytherin’s perspective. Gryffindor actively chased him out, while the others just let it happen. And after Voldemort learned that Harry “defeated” his older self? There’s a chance he told the Basilisk. If so, I think it would want to attack. So, is it racist? In practice, sure, but I don’t think it is innately. It’s got a beastly streak of violence to it, and Voldemort and it working together is a bit like the same archetype of Melkor working with Ungoliant. They want the same thing, in broad strokes, and for very different reasons.He didn’t know it at the time, but Harry could have just as easily tried to take command of the Basilisk as the heir of Slytherin. That would end up in some kind of power struggle which Harry would probably lose. But if he won, the Basilisk would happily change allegiances, and could clearly be made to attack a resurrected young Voldemort. They both have almost the same claim after all, Voldemort just had the family line as well as a soul fragment, and he was a more skilled wizard. I think it would kill either of them if commanded, with its eyes. If given free agency during the attack it would clearly prefer to bite. And if it was truly free, it would attack a lot of people and beasts, and the closest thing to loyalty towards the original plan you would get from it would be if a student was a Slytherin, it would spare them. Apart from that, I really think it would just enjoy eating children. That’s the thing that separates it from Voldemort. He wants it to kill specific children in order to send a message. It may well have been influenced by years of servitude to the Slytherin line, but for it, the killing is the main thing it wants.
>>222771327Agreed, but it's too bad it also kept the battle with the basilisk pretty tame. Should have been on par with the fight with the dragon in GoF (or the Gringotts escape on the dragon for that matter, pic).
>>222771965The snake was an asian woman the entire time.
