several points i wanted to respond to after reading this thread...
Libby Lovegood wrote:I think they could curse each other as long as they dont cast a spell at the same time.
thats one thing i really really like about hp - the magic - the spells are actuall physical things that can knock things down, be blocked, set fire to things... in order for the prior incantantum to work the spells themselves have to hit each other - im not sure if its mentioned in the books directly but i imagine the spells as this narrow ray or beam - so in fact they can cast a spell at each other even at the same time but direct it for different parts of body and still hit each other and cause the prior incantantum... so theres not much problam with a wand duel in the end, but i do agree with the stabbing or some other "ordinary" way of dying idea - it would be more interesting...
maybe something like in the end vold says to harry - "ahhh im sick of firing spells from this stick like some cowardly commie (no idea how this has anything to do with this but thats what came to mind) - lets settle this like real men" *conjures 4 boxing gloves* - "are you up for it, potter?!"
ok back to serious matters...
SunsetG|rl wrote:Yeah but not even that is going to be enough. If it's not Voldemort... it's just going to be another one with great power and thirst for evil and torture.
"Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." (lotr, Return of the king, The last debate) i know its the "wrong" book but it really fitted, and those are great lines and a great lesson for life...
thestral wrote:yes, but you're working on this basis, that like last time with another's help, he regained his body and his powers. what i'm saying is that IF his powers were irredeemably taken away from him with no hope of ever getting them back at all, regardless of what potion or schemes he connives. the fact would be that powerful wizards like lucius would not take orders from a squib... i think that if he could be well and truly squibbed beyond redmption of his powers...
look at other tyrants around the world - hitler, sadam, milosevic, stalin... they didnt have magical power but they had people loyal to them cuz they represented an idea and a way, that usually here was based on prejaudice and hate, and people thought that they could make that idea come true. that is true i think for some des and that maybe enough to scare the others into keep supporting vold just because hes the only 1 who can unite them, and the only 1 who dares to act on that agenda - lucius didnt get his oppinion about muggle born when vold rose to power and didnt change it when he fell - yet he only did something about it when vold was in power, im not sure hed so quickly want to give up vold's leadership. to sum up vold's power is much more than only his magical powers...