Dementors don't eat souls, they merely expunge them from the body
One of the most conversial parts of HP is the dementors - in a universe with an afterlife, the destruction of the soul is the greatest possible evil. For this reason, dementors are feared and hated by the fandom.
However, I have looked and cannot find any textual proof that dementors destroy a soul vs simply detaching it from the mortal coil. Character statement suggests that they "suck the soul out", but this only suggests that the victim dies, not that their soul is destroyed.
Souls are sacred to wizardingkind, as is shown by the revulsion wizards have towards horcrux's. Why do they not revile dementors in the same way? The fact that dementors leave behind a shell of a person again does not imply that the spul is destroyed, only that a body without a soul can survive but has lost all essence of person.
What do you think?
2 comments · 25% upvoted · other discussions
There's a lot of talk about it being a fate worse than death. Maybe the soul gets trapped in limbo. Even the people in the WW who study death don't seem to have too strong a grasp on what the afterlife is like. (e.g. Dumbledore, department of mysteries, the ghosts). At least not that we see in the books.
Whether the soul is released or trapped or consumed, I'd rather go pretty much any other way.
LowAspect542 2 points · Mar 2023 · :Claw1: Ravenclaw
consider that a dementors victim is basically the opposite of a ghost.