I have to disagree with the basic premise on multiple levels... For one, a hero is not inherently expendable. Yes, they (mostly) all die... but that is about being mortal, not a hero specifically. Heroes aren't one task wonders by defeault. Villagers are dying in those tales all the time. This makes them victums not heros. Villains die all the time... this doesn't make them heroic... it makes the casualties. Being a casualty doesn't make you instantly heroic... it makes you injured and or dead. The idea that dying makes them the Hero is stupid. Its the fact they can actually die doing their deeds. That they risk everything against (difficultly level varies) odds. To be a hero you have to risk things you don't have to to accomplish things. Things that are actually yours/the Hero's to risk... risking these kind of things you don't need to... for the benifit of others... is part of being heroic. Risk and losing things that aren't yours isn't inherently heroic. Its not a real sacrifice if you 'sacrifice' things that aren't yours in the first place. Going into a random house and 'sacrificing it' to the fire gods is not sacrifice... its arson. Thus Its not a 'sacrifice'... its a mockery of a 'sacrifice'... Its a 'Sacroflyce!'
I also disagree with the premise that you are actually firing an arrow in the example. Ammo (the theoretical 'arrow')as you describe.it (Head, Shaft, Fletchings) is NOT and arrow at all... that would be a bolt. A bolt can't be fired from an bow without being stupid and wrong about it. Arrows also have Notches... Bolts have no notch. They are flat on that end and the crossbow smacks them and they get propelled forwards... If we use your 'arrow' analogy Dumbledore is the notch on the 'arrow'... the force tying Harry to the target. Setting him on his path. The force that makes him forward is Hogwarts... the string. The bow are his friends and pseudo-family and such... the archer the Wizarding World as a whole.... as the 'Archer' is the 'Hero'.... and they had to acquire a Macguffin (a Harry Potter shaped one) to fire at the target. They didn't own 'Harry Potter' they by and large confiscated him. They tricked him into coming there so he would solve their problems for them. Look at how the press (and the populous in general in response to the press) treated him and you'll know he was an outsider to the Wizarding World as a whole... he wasn't a real person to them. He was a tool that was there to fill a role... he was a celebrity to fill pages of the scandle sheets and the sometimes the Quibbler. Also, to sell books he wouldn't get a percentage off.
What the Wizarding World did its best to get was a 'Tragic Hero'... the kind of expendable 'SacroFlyce!' your talking about. Harry Potter was just that... a Tragic Hero. Until the day he first showed up in Diagon Alley. Then he was a public spectical... they eventually tried to make him a (tragic) 'Hero' again. The entire surrviving the 7th book thin makes the Wizarding World fail at this goal. So Harry isn't a 'SacrFlyce!' despite large amounts of effort on the WW's side.
That Harry didn't just leave and/or get the English military to carpet bomb those idiots and worse... that he did Final Death the genocidal maniac... that he saved the day from things that were largely ignored by the cops and the government (if not inflicted)... is what makes Harry Potter a Hero. That he managed to only go emo and screw up his romanic life and learned to hate the general populous (like a fairly normal teenager)and still saved them. Thatis what makes him heroic. Harry Potter is a Hero for saving the Wizarding World despite itself.
I also disagree with the premise that you are actually firing an arrow in the example. Ammo (the theoretical 'arrow')as you describe.it (Head, Shaft, Fletchings) is NOT and arrow at all... that would be a bolt. A bolt can't be fired from an bow without being stupid and wrong about it. Arrows also have Notches... Bolts have no notch. They are flat on that end and the crossbow smacks them and they get propelled forwards... If we use your 'arrow' analogy Dumbledore is the notch on the 'arrow'... the force tying Harry to the target. Setting him on his path. The force that makes him forward is Hogwarts... the string. The bow are his friends and pseudo-family and such... the archer the Wizarding World as a whole.... as the 'Archer' is the 'Hero'.... and they had to acquire a Macguffin (a Harry Potter shaped one) to fire at the target. They didn't own 'Harry Potter' they by and large confiscated him. They tricked him into coming there so he would solve their problems for them. Look at how the press (and the populous in general in response to the press) treated him and you'll know he was an outsider to the Wizarding World as a whole... he wasn't a real person to them. He was a tool that was there to fill a role... he was a celebrity to fill pages of the scandle sheets and the sometimes the Quibbler. Also, to sell books he wouldn't get a percentage off.
What the Wizarding World did its best to get was a 'Tragic Hero'... the kind of expendable 'SacroFlyce!' your talking about. Harry Potter was just that... a Tragic Hero. Until the day he first showed up in Diagon Alley. Then he was a public spectical... they eventually tried to make him a (tragic) 'Hero' again. The entire surrviving the 7th book thin makes the Wizarding World fail at this goal. So Harry isn't a 'SacrFlyce!' despite large amounts of effort on the WW's side.
That Harry didn't just leave and/or get the English military to carpet bomb those idiots and worse... that he did Final Death the genocidal maniac... that he saved the day from things that were largely ignored by the cops and the government (if not inflicted)... is what makes Harry Potter a Hero. That he managed to only go emo and screw up his romanic life and learned to hate the general populous (like a fairly normal teenager)and still saved them. Thatis what makes him heroic. Harry Potter is a Hero for saving the Wizarding World despite itself.