Okay, I've been looking through old threads, and I didn't come across one like this, so if this is a repost, I apologize.

Anyway, I've always wondered happens to the soul once a dementor has sucked it out. I think it's pretty clear that the soul is destroyed, but one must wonder why the body continues to function. Lupin has stated your body lives with its heart and brain, but... isn't the soul what gives a person life? Shouldn't this be like an instant death sentence for the body and cessation of existence for the lost soul? Or can someone kissed by a dementor still access the vague afterlife the series has purported to exist? For that matter, what happens to the bodies of those suffering from the Dementor's Kiss? They're put somewhere, but do they need to be fed and so on? Is the body just on automatic?

Anyway, discuss.

 

I don't think the soul is destroyed at all, actually.

And no, the soul isn't what gives a person life. The person's parents fucking is what gives them life, more or less. Soul is what gives a person their consciousness.

As for the still-living bodies of the victims, either they're moved to St.Mungos, mercy-killed or still allowed to be with their families.

 

I'd go with this.

When procreation kicks in, the process requests a soul from the well of life. It gets what is essentially a loaner laptop, with a firmware and the basic OS that is ready to learn, add programs and whatever.

A dementor comes along and gives it the Kiss, erasing everything including the OS. What's left is firmware enough to keep the hardware on, but a big flashing cursor of nothing going on inside.

 

Oh, trying to quantify the soul in computer terminology. This thread will surely turn out great.

I think Rowling should've just made the Dementors feed on emotions rather than souls. Seems more fitting, and it would've cleared up questions like this. The Kiss maybe could've rendered them emotionless and inhibited their free will instead of rendering them as just husks. Well, they'd still be husks, but it'd be a creepier and even more monstrous form of it.

 

It also seems to throw the immortality/invulnerability of souls into question. If the soul is the seat of consciousness, does that mean victims experience void depression for the rest of time/until that Dementor dissipates? That's fucking awful.

I wonder if she had this planned before/along with the bit about Horcruxes being a (variably) vulnerable container for an invulnerable/immortal soul.

 

Intense, intense, dry-mouth.

Dementors...