WellAdjusted!Harry (was Re: Harry Beats Voldemort: Actual talent ...)

[chthonia9]

No: HPFGUIDX 47799


greg_a126 wrote:
 
>Everytime he's escaped from Voldemort thus far I'd chock it 
up to dumb luck: his mother's protection, using the Basilisk fang on 
the diary, using the summoning charm to run away.  
> 
> 
>  Barb:
> You make a good point about Voldemort's age and experience, but you 
also missed a few.  Harry has not escaped each time entirely by sheer 
dumb luck.  He has made choices, important choices, which is what 
Dumbledore says is the difference between him and Voldemort, despite 
similar childhoods. [much snipped]

I write:

Yeah, I agree, it's not 'luck' nor strictly 'talent', 
but 'character', as Crouch!Moody put it during during the Imperius 
curse class in GoF.

Barb:
> While all of the villains' mistakes can basically be boiled down to 
hubris, the one that stands out the most is Voldemort's fall, when he 
was almost destroyed by the protection Harry received from his 
mother.  In stark contrast, Harry is remarkably lacking in hubris; it 
almost makes him a little unreal right now, but hopefully JKR will 
explore his character a little more and he will be a little better 
rounded and less perfect.  

Me:
Yes - Harry is remarkably well adjusted really, and (especially in 
light of my previous post concerning Lucius/Draco childhoods, 
attachment theory etc) I find that hard to grasp.  Someone said 
recently that Harry had made choices to rise above his upbringing - 
but I can't see how he could have the capacity to make those choices, 
unless wizard psychology is fundamentally different.  Only thing I 
can think of is that the magic invoked by his mother's death allowed 
him to psychologically survive the Dursleys (even though Harry didn't 
know about that consciously, the Dementors in PoA showed that he had 
deeply buried memories of it), as well as physically surviving 
Voldemort.

Chthonia