Talk:Dementor

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Contents 1 School Year 2 Breeding 3 Film Image 4 Word Choice 5 Squibs and Dementors 6 Rowling, Depression and Dementors 7 Spoiler Warning?

[edit] School Year

Which interview did Rowling say that the school year for POA was 1993-1994? I see no references in the books. Crisco 1492 16:04, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

This seems to be a somewhat contentious issue among fans. See Dates in Harry Potter. The best solution would probably be either to remove the dates or, perhaps better, to link the dates to that explanatory page as has been done elsewhere. TheIncredibleEdibleOompaLoompa 00:44, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Breeding

The article states that Dementors grow like fungi. I've heard no such thing, can someone trace that? -- Kizor 16:40, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It's from an interview Rowling gave in 2000 in Canada. The relevant excerpt, reported by Quick Quotes is:

One young Canadian boy earlier asked her how Dementors breed.

"I was just so pleased that he thought about it and pleased that I had the answer," Rowling told The Canadian Press.

These evil creatures don't, by the way, breed but grow like a fungus where there is decay.Sinistro 20:43, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

That was prompt. Thanks, and sorry if I sounded accusative. -- Kizor 23:09, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This awfully sounds like a merger of the Reaper and the Furies combined. -- Natalinasmpf 29 June 2005 03:37 (UTC)

But in HBP, Fudge says "they are breeding". So, it seems we have a contradiction. I suggest someone shoud find another word, a replacement for "breeding". Though i can't think of any at the moment... 18 August 2005 13:37 (UTC)

Since Fudge doesn't seem to be the most reliable source of information, I'd trust Rowling over him. :) Either way I think this might be an interesting contradiction to note in the article. As for the fog, I don't have a copy of HBP anymore, so I guess I can't comment on that. Also there's currently an apparent contradiction in the article. It simultaneously says that dementors feed on negative and positive emotions. Glancing at POA, it turns out positive is the correct answer, which somewhat surprised me. I thought the reason a Patronus worked as a shield was that the dementors couldn't feed on it as it had no negative emotions. My mistake (though, I note that the article explicitly states this as well). I am left strangely confused as to why Dementors are frightened away by food, though. TheIncredibleEdibleOompaLoompa 05:47, August 19, 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, the part about them feeding on negative emotions is wrong - they feed on positive ones, which is why their victims are like that - all they have left are negative feelings. According to Lupin, a Patronus is a shield because while it embodies positive emotions it cannot feel despair and (somehow) for that reason Dementors can't harm it. Finally, Dementors are not frightened away by food - the only relative piece of info is chocolate being an effective first-aid remedy to a Dementor attack. Sinistro 23:38, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. Sometimes it's hard to remember that tone doesn't transfer well over through text. I'm aware of what Lupin said (I looked it up and was reading it as I wrote the above) and I know about chocolate. My comment about the food was just a silly way of stating my confusion over this issue: A patronus is positive emotion. Dementors feed on positive emotion. Why then do dementors seem so frightened of Patronuses? The only thing I can think of is that a Patronus can physically harm them while remaining unharmed itself. Sorry for the confusion. TheIncredibleEdibleOompaLoompa 03:59, August 21, 2005 (UTC)

The same kind of energy can be an attractive or a repulsive force, as with magnetism.--15:52, 21March 2006 (EST)

The "they grow like a fungus" part has been deleted in the mean time by an anonimous user...i guess i'll put it back Belard 02:50, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Film Image

Since virtually everything else in the Harry Potter series of articles has an image from at least one of the films to illustrate it (for any character/creature that has appeared so far), for consistency we should have a picture of a 'movie' dementor. Keep the drawing but make the main pic a screen cap. exolon 02:23, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• I did a search for a Dementor image via Yahoo and Google and didn't find that much. going to try to use a few differnt search engines Aeon 04:35, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Word Choice

This article currently describes Dementor's as empathic because they feed off human emotions. This is NOT the conventional definition of emapthic (having a sense of empathy, an understanding of other's emotions and fealings, etc.) especially because empathy implies caring about others. I've deleated the word, but if someone can find an apporpriate word, they should use it.12.17.189.77 13:58, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Squibs and Dementors

There is a small error in the page here. It states that Squibs are not able to see Dementors, and yet Arabella Figgs, the squib living near Harry is able to percieve them. Page 132 in Order of the Phoenix (court case when Figg is brought in as a witness) is a good example. I'm still new to Wikipedia so I thought I'd enter this here as opposed to editing the page right away.

This is a recurring problem; many people simply trust Figg, rather than suspecting her of lying to protect Harry. (Rowling even seems to go out of her way to make Figg's testimony seem suspicious.) Later in the same paragraph of this page, it's explained that on her webpage Rowling has stated Figg didn't see the dementors. I'm glad that, unlike previous new editors, you chose to bring it up here. Most people simply change the sentence without discussing it, or even reading enough of the page to notice the contradiction it generates in the very next sentence. TheIncredibleEdibleOompaLoompa 21:26, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rowling, Depression and Dementors

I am struck by how strongly the Dementors seem personifications of clinical depression. I had researched Rowling's history a bit, and posted information on her personal experience with depression, as I believe that this is not only a creatively important link, but also is relevant to those who identify something familiar behind the Dementor's hood.

--Steve 13:05, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I believe she did once state that she based them, in part, off her depression. Michael 06:22, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spoiler Warning?

In the first paragraph it states that the Dementors guard Azkaban, then join Lord Voldemort. If a person is reading PoA and sees the second part, that might just ruin some of the suspense for them in future books. Maybe we should add that to a later part of the article and include a spoiler warning. ABart26 05:21, 5 August 2006 (UTC)