Moody Mandrakes, Dapper Dumbledore, fatherhood

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 27681

On Mandrakes:

To all those lamenting the plight of the Mandrakes, hear hear.  Once upon a time in a post far far away I mentioned that Mandrakes seem almost human and definitely sentient, and asked where Hermione was when their rights needed defending!  (probably lying petrified in the hospital wing awaiting their slaughter, but never mind...).  Time to whip up some S.P.A.M. badges (Society for the Protection of Autonomous Mandrakes).

While we're delving into the past, instinct tells me that the worthy listmembers must have discussed this before, but what's the story with the battered relic that is Moody, Crouched or otherwise?  In a society where they can regrow bones overnight and phoenix tears can heal deadly snake bites, and amputees can be given magic silver hands, why on earth is Moody a one-legged, one-eyed flying purple mass of scar tissue?  I can see the handiness of having a roving eye (so to speak), but a wooden leg for the Ministiy's star Auror seems pretty rough when the Dark Lord's Snivelling Sidekick gets a new silver hand.  And as for the facial wounds, couldn't they have fixed him up good as new with Eau d'Oeuil Phoenix?

Great stuff on the Harry's composite father figure, Amanda.  On the subject of the Dumbledore component...

David:
>> Perhaps it is true that high heeled purple boots are just what is 
needed to convince the average prospective parent in seconds that 
Dumbledore has that aura of headmasterly responsibility - anything is 
possible in the WW.

But I prefer to think that D loves dressing up, and likes others to 
share this innocent pleasure.<<

Him and me both.  I approve.  I think that anyone with the a sense of humour that whimsical and twinkling is bound to let it extend into his dress sense.  As for vanity (that deadly sin that people have been defending him from charges of), come on, let the man have a well-rounded personality.  We already have one One Personality Fits All Evil Overlords major power out there - if we also had a bland, all-good, all-wise, all-white-bearded Good Overlord with no personal flaws allowed it would be insufferable.

Leslie:
> I think that you are absolutely correct.  I think, for most of us, thinking 
back on our fathers gives us a nice loving squishy feeling.  (...)
> In talking with a friend of mine years ago, he told me that men "find 
themselves" through first rebelling against their father figure.  Through 
this rebelling against their fathers, they end up coming to a deeper 
understanding of manhood and fatherhood< 

Oooo, now this is interesting.  I've long been concocting theories about this very subject (but then again, I concoct theories about everything), though I suspect that OT-chatter is the place to explore them.  Briefly, I have observed at least three men having violent backlashes against their fathers in their late teens (one of these men being my brother), rejecting everything he stands for, can't bear the thought of ending up like him, etc.etc., who all miraculously came around by their mid-twenties, having not only abandoned their resentment, but also completely imitating and affirming behaviour from their fathers which they previously condemned!  Fascinating...

Tabouli.







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