Least favorite characters & "empty Harry"??

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 28416

Ooo, now let me think.  As I've mentioned before, when it comes to fictional characters, I don't apply the same criteria I would to real people (i.e. would I like them): I judge by whether I think they're well-drawn and interesting and believable.  My least favorites on this score have always been:

1. Crabbe 'n' Goyle (straight from the mute henchmen mold)
2. Voldemort (the Evil Overlord caricature who looks like an extra from the animated Lord of the Rings)(Tom Riddle had much more style)

On these grounds, I think Snape is great, because he's intriguing and complex and challenging for the reader without being a caricature.  I doubt that I'd like someone like that in person, but that's irrelevant.  I also think Rita is masterly, because even though she's a thoroughly nasty piece of work, she's a wonderful sketch of a bloodsucking, shameless tabloid reporter (hence Skeeter, no doubt).  As for Lockhart, he *is* a caricature, but a very amusing one IMO (says the founder of LIGHT RELIEF).

Fleur is the one character where I wish JKR *had* taken a slightly more feminist stance (and this is unusual for me: I'm usually a stickler for realism not implausibly idealised role modelling and tokenism).  I totally agree that Fleur's performance, for an impartially selected Triwizard champion who is supposedly the top representative from one of Europe's three top wizarding schools, is woeful.  "Ze Grindylows, zey attacked me!" indeed (especially when Hogwarts students learnt Grindylow defence in third year).  Given that she is the only female champion out of four and only a supporting character, I *wish* JKR had let her come third and put in a better performance.  (Is she suggesting that Beauxbatons is too chic and sophisticated to produce good wizards?  Do they have a DADA teacher like Lockhart??).

One more thing - a friend of mine went to a paper on HP a while ago (never mentioned this), in which the sneering academic said that HP was popular because Harry was an "empty" character, with no real personality or knowledge, into whom children could project themselves.  Sacrilege!  I told my friend, wishing I'd gone to cry her down.  What do people think of this blasphemous theory?

Tabouli.


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