Harry Potter & Bill Gates; Snapers vs. Sirists

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 34668

bsc_arch <leung_b at m...> asked:
> Does anybody have the feeling that Harry Potter bears a striking 
> resemblance to Bill Gates? (dark dishevelled hair and glasses)

OK, I promised myself I would just lurk (too busy to write) but I 
couldn't pass this up.  When I saw the Harry Potter movie, I told my 
husband, "I'd enjoy this a lot more if Harry Potter didn't look like a 
young Bill Gates."  Gates actually has fairly light hair, but he still 
resembles "Harry" a lot. 

Hmmmm.... Harry looks like Bill Gates.... We also know that Tom Riddle 
in his youth looked a lot like Harry....  That's it!  Bill Gates is 
really Lord Voldemort!  No wonder he has all that money!


Well, since I'm writing, I have to talk about Snape and Sirius.  I'm 
one of the many who like Snape but can't stand Sirius. (Remus is 
fine.) I really don't think it has anything to do with which character 
is morally good and which is evil -- they are both far from being 
saints. Rather, I think it depends on whether one likes the impulsive, 
reckless sort (Sirius) or the very controlled, enigmatic type (Snape). 
A few people like both, but most people only go for one or the other.

Of course, the fact that S & S are enemies in the books is another 
reason why people tend to like one or the other, but not both.  


Caleb (in message 34657) implied there was something almost 
pathological about liking Snape, saying:
> Snapers you should take a look hard look at Snape, and drop all the 
> stuff from the fanfics. You will find that he is big bully,
> or a incompetent spy....To say that the Longbottom's got what was 
> coming to them is just sick, and that has been said 

Believe me, I've taken a long look at Snape.  (Or, I would have if he 
were real -- sigh.)  Snape has tons of positive qualities, which I 
enumerated in a post a while ago. (In a nutshell -- brave, articulate, 
brilliant, talented wizard, etc.) And no, I don't read fanfics; I got 
everything about Snape from cannon. I don't know where you get the 
idea that Snape is an "incompetent spy"; do we know of *anyone* else 
who spied on Voldy and lived?  And who here said that "the 
Longbottom's got what was coming to them"?  I don't remember anyone 
saying that and I certainly don't think that at all.  I dislike 
Snape's bullying of Neville, but console myself that it may be part of 
an act. (This has been discussed at length here before.)

Obviously, there must be *something* attractive about Snape, because 
as has been said here before, "A large proportion of Harry Potter 
fandom consists of people who are simply infatuated with him."  I see 
nothing pathological about this; I don't think people would like him 
if they thought he was truly evil.  The truly evil characters in the 
Potterverse seem to have few fans.  No one is infatuated with Voldy 
that I know of, and Pettigrew has no fans as far as I can tell.  
Lucius isn't popular, either.  And the people who like Draco almost 
always have some theory of why he's really nice underneath it all. 
It's very reassuring that people prefer the good characters.