Okay so -Today, we're going to be talking about why Neville
Longbottom is my chosen one. If you're new to my channel,
I have a lot of Harry Potter videos. I'll link the playlist up there
and down in the description. Neville Longbottom is
my favorite character in the series. I have many times mentioned in passing that Neville Longbottom
is my chosen one. I get so many comments on this,
people asking me to make a video about it, people just outright telling me I'm wrong and all
the reasons why, and that's fine. Today, I have a video talking
about Neville Longbottom, and we're going to discuss
why I think of him this way. The video is going to start out
with me just talking about Neville. I'm going to take you through
his life and his general arc. This will be much faster
than my Snape analysis video. I won't go as in-depth. After we quickly go
over Neville's life and his arc, then I'm going to discuss why
I think of him as a companion chosen one to Harry and how it does
fit into the canon of the series. Now, don't get me wrong,
I'm not claiming that Neville is canon chosen one. Obviously, Harry is the only
chosen one as the series is written. However, my thoughts, my hopes, my dreams,
my wishes of Neville also being the chosen one does
actually fit into the canon. It could have ended this way, and I just
would have loved to have seen it. We're going to start
chatting about Neville. Then we're going to dive into why this theory works and why
I'm so attached to it. Here we go,
the character of Neville Longbottom. Alice and Frank Longbottom were members
of the original Order of the Phoenix. They were very popular
in their age and were integral members
in resisting the Dark Lord. When he fell,
Bellatrix tortured the Longbottoms for information
on Voldemort's whereabouts. She eventually broke them,
torturing them into insanity. They live on, but they reside in St Mungo's Hospital
as their minds are gone. Neville Longbottom, after losing his parents and watching his
grandfather die, was raised by his gran. While his gran was always hard
on him and looked down on him for not being a natural at magic
like his father, we also get a glimpse into the abuse he experienced from
his family growing up. No wonder that toad
meant so much to him. It was the gift his uncle gave him after he was finally accepted
into the family after he showed his magical abilities. Neville visits his parents
regularly in the hospital. Despite the way his gran treats them,
he values the time with them and what
little love they're capable of showing him,
keeping their gifts of gum wrappers and missing them deeply. Neville grew up as a boy afraid: afraid he was never good enough, afraid of his abusive teacher,
afraid of the people who were capable of the torture
that ripped his family apart. Largely due to that fear,
and my theory is also partly because he wasn't using a wand that chose him,
he did not excel in school or in anything
pertaining to magic, except herbology which
he always had a knack for. Despite that fear and general
lacking in ability, he stood up to his friends when he believed
they were wrong. He fought for what
he believed to be right, stood up to the bullies who picked on him,
faced his greatest fear every day in class,
repeatedly insisted on being a help any way he could,
was integral in the Department of Ministries, and even stood
for what was right when being tortured by the very person
that destroyed his parents' minds. He made a lot of mistakes through
all of this, but you know what? Despite constantly
messing up and constantly being made fun
of or discounted because of those mistakes and constantly being afraid,
he never stopped fighting and never stopped doing
what he felt was right. Year five was when his rise began. This was when his parents' torturer was out of Azkaban,
and he started working harder than anyone to learn to defend himself. Incidentally, shortly after,
when he was truly becoming a good wizard was also the time his gran
started believing in him and when he got a new wand rather
than a hand-me-down. Neville was there when Harry needed the DA to guard the walls while
he and Dumbledore left the school. He was fighting the Death
Eaters when they showed up. In Book seven,
he rose up to be the leader of the DA. He was the one that kept the group
together and looked after the members. He was sneaking out and leaving
messages on the walls as well as standing up to the people that were running the school,
giving the other students hope. He was being tortured but wouldn't
back down because again, he stood for what he knew was right. He figured out how the Room
of Requirement worked and made a safe haven
for those who had pushed the school leaders too far
and needed a place to hide. He called everyone back to Hogwarts
to fight when Harry showed up. He fought in the final battle not only
with magic, but with plants because that was what he knew well,
and it worked. During the reprieve, he helped
to collect bodies of the fallen. He was the one Harry trusted to kill the last Horcrux,
if Ron and Hermione couldn't. When Harry died, [?] and Voldemort
was telling the school that he had won. Neville was the one who continued
to fight, no matter how hopeless it looked,
no matter how badly Voldemort hurt him. And then he cut Nagini's head off,
destroying the last Horcrux so that Harry could face off against
Voldemort in the end. Neville is my favorite
character in the series. Maybe this video is half
an excuse to make a hype video for him,
but he's honestly such an inspiration. Why do I consider him
the chosen one or a chosen one? Let's look at the prophecy. "The one with the power to vanquish
the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him,
born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will
make him as an equal, but he will have power
the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die
at the hand of the other for neither can live
while the other survives". This prophecy has seven points: the one who fits this prophecy has
to have been born to those who had defied the Dark Lord thrice times; born at the end of July; male. The Dark Lord will mark
him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. Either must die
at the hands of the other, and neither can live
while the other survives. The first three are easy. Neville was a male whose parents
defied the Dark Lord three times, and he was born at the end of July.
We know this. This is also where we're
told the qualifications end. However, I don't think they do.
I think he fits all of them. Now, we're getting into the discussion part of this video where I'm
going to pitch you my idea. Stick with me because while it may
look feeble in the beginning, hopefully you'll see how it all
comes together too. Qualifier number four,
the Dark Lord marked him as his equal. This one I don't think
is that hard to figure out. How did the Dark Lord
mark Harry as his equal? It wasn't by trying to kill him. Obviously,
he tried to kill tons of people. He successfully killed tons of people. It wasn't the act
of trying to kill Harry. It was the choice of "I'm going
to kill you because I think that you're who the prophecy is about",
but here's the thing. Voldemort didn't know
about the full prophecy. He only heard the first part,
the first three qualifiers: male, born of someone who's defied you thrice times,
born at the end of July. That's all Voldy knew.
He didn't know about anything else. Going off of those qualifiers, I'm sure Voldy understood there are two
people that fit this category, just like everybody else was
able to figure that out. So one of two things happened: either Voldy is really dumb,
which we've already established sometimes he can be, and he just decided I'm going to pick one
of these two and just really hope that that's the correct one. Because Voldemort doesn't know
that marking him as his equal is what's going to make him the one
that the prophecy is about. He has no concept
that he has to choose only one. All he knows is that there
are two boys that this prophecy might be about,
and he doesn't know that it's his choice that makes
the prophecy about one of them. Why in the world would he only pick one? Why would he say,
"I'm going to pick Harry, and hopefully I'm right, and hopefully Neville
won't grow up to defeat me"? No, that doesn't make sense. What Voldemort would have more
likely done is decided, "I'm going to kill both of these babies,
and it's not going to be a problem for me
because they're babies. This will mean that the prophecy
can't be fulfilled". My theory, my head canon. Again, to be clear,
I'm not suggesting that this is canon. I'm talking about my head canon that could fit into the books
if it were written this way. My head canon, because we have
such a limited point of view to where we have no idea how
that scene actually played out when Voldy got this prophecy, all we know is that he told Snape
he was going to kill Harry, and then Snape freaked out and said,
"Please don't kill Lily too". My theory is that Voldemort
decided to kill both boys because that's the only
logical decision to make here. It doesn't make sense to only
pick one and hope that you're right. He picked both boys, therefore
marking both boys as his equal because it was the choice of you're
who I'm going after. That was what marked them as the equal,
not the act of trying to kill Harry, which means that both
could have been marked as his equal. I think he could have marked
both as his equal, told Snape, "Hey, I'm going to kill Harry",
and planned on saying "and Neville", but when he saw Snape's reaction,
he stopped and decided not to say anymore because it was odd how
Snape was very bothered by this. Then Voldy went off to kill Harry. The spell rebounded,
and he couldn't finish his mission. Then, from then on out, his goal
was to kill Harry because either, one-- We know that Voldy
is a super fixated guy. He gets really stuck on something
and then he has to do it. Either, one,
he got really fixated on Harry because his pride was
hurt by being beat by a baby, so he wanted to kill Harry
first then go after Neville. Or, two, he just thought okay,
this is proof that Harry was the one that the prophecy was about. He dropped Neville,
and then Harry was his main goal. But that doesn't change the fact that he marked both as
his equal if he did indeed plan to kill them both,
which is only logical, in my opinion. Stick with me because there's more. The next qualifier is, but he will
have power the Dark Lord knows not. Okay, no problem.
We know that this is the power that Harry's mom gave him when
she sacrificed herself for him. This is something
that Voldemort didn't understand. Even up to Book seven when
he finally knew what this spell was that was protecting Harry, he still didn't really get it and kept
underestimating it. So that knocks Neville out. His mom or parent,
anyone didn't die saving him. Neville never had this protection on him, and so he can't be the one,
right? Wrong. In Book seven, Harry sacrificed himself, and in sacrificing himself,
the same spell that his mother put on him
when she died for him was then put on all of Hogwarts
minus the Death Eaters. That protected them in the end so that in the final
battle they stopped dying. The spells started missing
because of Harry's protection spell. Who else did that cover? Neville. Granted,
it covered a whole bunch of people, but those people don't fit
the rest of the prophecy. Neville does. Neville did have this power
that the Dark Lord knew not. Why did Neville have it? Because he's a part of the prophecy
and he was destined to have it because he's one of the two chosen ones. Both boys had powers
that the Dark Lord knew not. There is no qualifier
that says they had to have had it since they were a baby. They both had it. Next is either must die
at the hand of the other. Again, I think this one's pretty easy. Neville Longbottom pulled the sword
of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat. Something that I might remind you only two people did
throughout the entire series and two people did in all
of existence that we know of. He pulled the sword
of Gryffindor out of the hat, and he sliced Nagini's head off killing the very last Horcrux
therefore defeating the Dark Lord in his power. From that moment on,
JK Rowling starts referring to Voldemort as Tom or Tom Riddle
more and more because that was the moment that he became mortal again. He lost his powers of the Dark
Lord and just became Tom again. In fact, even in that final showdown between Harry and Voldemort,
Harry wasn't the one that killed him. It was Voldemort's own rebounding spell that killed him,
which Harry was a part of because they both cast their spells at the same time
and the spells hit each other. However, it was Voldemort's
spell that killed him. Harry wasn't even the one that killed Voldemort exactly,
technically, and yet, he's the one that fulfilled the prophecy. I feel like Neville being the one
that defeated the Dark Lord in his power and made him mortal
again should also count. He was an integral part of bringing
him down to his mortality so that he could die in the end from his own spell. The last one is neither can
live while the other survives. This one, again, is super easy. Harry can't live while the other one survives simply because Voldemort
is going to kill him. That's easy to say okay,
so if we're taking this theory and we're accepting it,
then in the beginning, Voldemort had chosen both, marked both as equal. Always would have come back
to kill Neville just to make sure that all of his T's are crossed and his
I's are dotted and there's no chance that the chosen one still survives. It's not hard to assume that he would have made sure that Neville
was dead too, just to be sure. Hey, Luck.
It's easy to assume that if Voldemort survived,
Neville wouldn't have because he would have made sure that both of those that he marked as his equal are gone,
or both of the two that could have possibly been the chosen one are
gone for good measure. Again, I know this isn't canon, but the prophecy is vague,
and it does fit into canon. Imagine the image of at the end, instead of it being Harry versus
Voldy and it ending the way it did. Instead, it's Harry and Neville standing side by side against
the man who destroyed their lives, and side by side,
they cast a spell and face off against him, and their combined
power brings him down. We don't have to have known the whole time that the two boys
are actually the chosen one. In fact, the series could look exactly the same as it did throughout all seven books as it was written
except one little change, and that's at the very
end the two boys face off together and take him down together. Then they realize, "Actually, we still both fit this, and it was always
meant to be us at the end". Why do I care?
Why do I like this head canon so much? Mostly it's because I think that Neville and his arc throughout
the series are so inspiring. I also just really think that would
have been such a satisfying end. It would have fit Neville's arc that we watched him
have over seven books. It would have fit
the prophecy as it was written. It just would have been so satisfying
to see these two boys stand up together and take him down together. Maybe it's true
that we followed Harry alone throughout the series,
but we still got to see Neville's arc. It would have been
a really great surprise that fit within the series, and it also would
have just been so inspiring to see both of them stand shoulder-to-shoulder
facing off together. Again, I know this isn't cannon. Harry is obviously the chosen
one of the books, but this is why I love this head canon so much. This is why I've been asked to make this video so many
times finally talking about why I keep calling
Neville my chosen one. In my eyes, they both are. I used to have a head canon that Harry
died for real when he died when the Horcrux was destroyed and then
Neville came and finished it off, but I've since adjusted it, and I now see the two boys
facing him side-by-side. I like that image much better,
and I think it fits to the series really well. I know everybody won't accept this and make it their own head canon,
and that's fine. But I finally made a video about it. I finally talked about why I think this,
why I love this so much, and that is the way I wish the series had ended
and the way I like to pretend it does. I hope you enjoy this video. I hope that at the very
least I've convinced you that Neville is a phenomenal character. I have several more Harry
Porter videos coming up. In fact, my next one is going
to be an in-depth look into Draco Malfoy and some thoughts I have on that. Be sure to continue chatting
with me about this in the comments. I post videos every Sunday,
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye. [music]
