Dark is rising again - final post reread impression

[dumbledore11214]

> Magpie:
> It's probably hard for me to think of it really being a rule of 
> consistency or anything--it's probably just many things about both 
> characters.
> 
> But I guess what bugs me more about Dumbledore is what seems to me 
> sentimentality on top of what he's doing. Merriman is ready to be 
> hated while Dumbledore feels bad and tells people he feels badly. 
Or, 
> like in OotP you know I just think his whole speech reads 
> like, "Okay, I'm going to tell you how everything is my fault. By 
> which I mean I'm going to show what everbody else did wrong and so 
> let me down and hopefully you'll feel sympathy for me." 
> 
> It's probably just a personal preference, but maybe it's that I 
don't 
> look at the two and see Merriman not knowing he did wrong and 
> Dumbledore knowing. On the contrary, it seems like Merriman knows 
he 
> did what he had to do based on his fanatical principles--he knows 
how 
> people might feel about what he did, but his loyalty isn't to 
> individual people. Where as Dumbledore defends himself personally, 
> seems to want to be sympathetic at the same time. It's like his 
> ridiculous "...you were a little thinner than I'd like, but you 
> weren't a pampered prince!" and then he shows up the Dursleys for 
one 
> last showy display of playing Santa. 

Alla:

Right, if it is a matter of personal preference, that is not 
possible to categorise, etc. If you say you just like Merryman 
better than Dumbledore just because you do, that is obviously 
completely valid response.

But I am still curious and almost seeing your POV, but not quite 
yet, IF we can categorise, of course.

You are saying that Merryman's loyalty is not to individual people 
and I agree, his loyalty is to humankind in general and light.

But did you got an impression that DD's loyalty IS to individual 
people? Because I totally did not, I felt that Harry is probably the 
first person ever he had gotten to love after his tragic fall out 
with his family and that pretty much became a conflict over what 
Dumbledore felt was his duty to do well by WW versus caring for well 
being of one boy.

Magpie:

Merriman seems like he is what 
> he is--you can completely trust him as far as you can trust him, 
he's 
> not messing with you. Dumbledore seems a lot more about his own 
> personal shifting ideas about right and wrong. Merriman a creature 
of 
> the Light. Dumbledore's his own Light.



Alla:

OOOOOO, I think I am getting closer to understanding, maybe. Would 
it be fair to say that you like Merryman better ( among other 
reasons) because he is accountable to **somebody** in his actions, 
probably to his mysterious Masters, while Dumbledore is a law in 
itself, basically?