Percy challenge, the brave, FIRE, Snape, puns, sermon

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 35845

> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:> 
> 
> > Here's a challenge to Percy-lovers (like Penny doesn't have 
enough 
> to do): 
> > compile a list of *positive* Percy moments.  I like Percy against 
> all 
> > reason, but the more I reread, the more evident it is that JKR 
> doesn't like 
> > him and doesn't intend her readers to.  The thing I like least 
about 
> Percy 
> > is, in fact, that he's very cartoonishly written.  Not as bad as 
> Lockhart, 
> > but up there.  He bustles, he says things pompously, he looks 
> smug--almost 
> > every time we see him he's given a negative valuation.
> 
Eileen's list:
> 
> A few positive Percy moments.
> 
> 1. "A genius, but mad yes." A certified joke.
> 2. The bet with Penny. More a Fred and George thing, if you think 
> about it.
> 3. Rushing off to fight that mob in GoF and coming back with the 
> bloodied nose.
> 4. Concern for Ginny in CoS.
> 5. His reaction after Penny is petrified.
> 6. His boasting of Ron at the end of SS/PS.
> 7. Rushing out to Ron at the end of the Second Task.
> 
I'd like to add the scene in CoS where Percy walks into the Great 
Hall just as Ginny is about to confess. Ron gets on his case for 
scaring Ginny away, but Percy thinks Ginny was going to spill the 
beans on him and Penelope and gets all tongue-tied and 
uncomfortable.  The implications are so un-Percy-like: Our rule-
enforcer is so smitten with a girl that he sneaks off at night to 
engage in behaviour unbecoming to a prefect, and then gets embarassed 
about it.  (I don't know if sneaking off to a classroom at night to 
make out was against the rules or not.  I thought so at the time, but 
now I'm not so sure, notwithstanding Snape blasting couples out of 
the rosebushes.)

And a response to Amy's general comment that JKR portrays Percy 
cartoonishly.  He does seem cartoonish at times, but he's been cast 
in the role of straight man in opposition to the twins' over the top 
humor (which is also very cartoonish, not to mention downright mean 
at times).  Although I think the pomposity he employs in carrying out 
his responsibilities (whether as prefect, Head Boy, Crouch's 
assistant, or cauldron-bottom analyst) are a bit overdone, there are 
all those actions on Eileen's list to humanize him.  

Perhaps the real challenge would be to put together a list of 
positive things Fred and George have done, besides giving Harry the 
Marauders Map which, I hasten to add, was given to Harry only so he 
could engage in blatant rule-breaking for no purpose other than 
personal pleasure.

Debbie, who can't figure out how her one-sentence response turned 
into a three-paragraph post