How Fictional Characters Spent Their New Year’s Eve

Posted by Lauren Thoman

A non-comprehensive roundup of how certain fictional characters spent the final day of the year.

 


[Movie still from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Warner Bros]

Hermione Granger

Since leaving Hogwarts, Hermione and Ron have made a habit of splitting holidays between the Grangers and the Weasleys. At first, Ron suggested that they could simply Apparate from one house to the other, enabling them to split each holiday evenly between both families, but after a couple attempts at this, Hermione’s parents hinted that they wouldn’t mind trading off with the Weasleys, if it meant their daughter would stop literally disappearing right after dinner. This year, the Grangers had New Years, and Hermione and Ron spent the evening at a party for the Grangers’ dental practice, complete with toothbrush sparklers and tooth-shaped confetti.

 


[Movie still from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Pictures]

Luke Skywalker

December 31st is meaningless in a galaxy far far away. Luke Skywalker spends it as he spends every day — in isolation on a remote island, stacking rocks with the Force and pondering his mistakes.

 


[Movie still from Twilight, Summit Entertainment]

Bella and Edward Cullen

Bella and Edward Cullen enjoy a quiet night at home with family playing games and watching movies. Their daughter, Renée (who has not gone by Renesmee since she was old enough to realize she didn’t have to) is home from college, where she is working on her third degree, this time in Forestry. Bella’s father, Charlie, also joins the gathering, where he tries his best to act as though everything is normal, even though he has never truly adjusted to his daughter’s new family. No one in the Cullen household gets particularly worked up over the passing of the new year, as immortality renders a single year rather irrelevant, but they enjoy the excuse to come together, drink champagne, and watch the ball drop in Times Square.

 


[Movie still from Batman Begins, Warner Bros]

Bruce Wayne

Keeping with his yearly tradition, Bruce Wayne throws a lavish gala at Wayne Manor, where he drinks so much champagne that he topples the ice sculpture, dances exuberantly with a plant, and somehow manages to kiss three different women before the clock finishes striking twelve. Shortly thereafter, he asks Alfred to inform the guests that he has retired for the evening, dons his cape and cowl, and slips out into the streets of Gotham, humming Auld Lang Syne under his breath.

 


[TV still from Game of Thrones, HBO]

Cersei Lannister

Cersei Lannister strides to her window, goblet clutched tightly in her hand. She sips her wine slowly, tapping her nails on the sill and she surveys the city below. “Burn,” she breathes. “Burn down to ash and bone, until even the memory of you is strangled in your own smoke.”

Walking up behind her, Jaime touches her shoulder. “Who are you talking to?”

Slowly, Cersei turns to her brother, her bright green eyes sparkling. “2016,” she whispers. “2016.”

 

Roland Deschain

As the year draws to a close, Roland Deschain pushes ever closer to the Tower. A voice whispers to him, telling him that the day is significant somehow. He pauses, shakes his head, then continues on. No use celebrating the end of the year. Not when the Man in Black is so close. The clock strikes twelve. Ever weary, Roland trudges on.

Lauren Thoman

Lauren Thoman

Lauren is a writer of YA speculative fiction and a dedicated eater of queso. She lives in Middle Tennessee with her husband, two daughters, and a half-blind dog. When she’s not busy with her family, binge-watching TV shows, or writing books about dragons or superheroes, she can probably be found on Twitter, or in close proximity to coffee, tacos, or a bookstore.