(non-TBAY) PINE-ing for Superfluous Characters

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 44826

(sorry, I can't do TBAY - at least, I've never tried, and I'm not in the 
mood to start right now! Heck, most of the time, I don't even read TBAY 
posts, but the subject matter of this one caught my fancy) :-)

At 12:19 02/10/02 +0000, Cindy C. wrote:

<snips throughout>

>The challenge would be to find the
>*biggest* character who could possibly be dumped on the SCOW.  Oh,
>anyone could dump students who don't even have whole *names* on the
>SCOW.  Like Stebbins or Summers ­ that's easy.  Heck, you could
>practically dump all of Ravensclaw on the SCOW and hardly anyone
>would miss it.

>*Percy Weasley* is going to take a little trip.  A trip *straight* to the 
>landfill!"

<snip rationale>

I'd disagree with you on one aspect of Percy's superfluousness (does that 
word exist?), namely his lack of a role in GoF. He is the only reason 
people accept that Crouch Snr. is compus mentis for most of the book, 
albeit ill. Believing that Crouch is ill but functioning is important to 
the plot, both for the characters in the book and for us readers to st us 
up for the red herring to beat all other red herrings into a fisherman's 
net (are there any herrings, red or otherwise, swimming around in Theory 
Bay?). :-)

The fact that Percy has been previously built up as trustworthy and 
conscientious, not to mention clever, lulls us (and the characters) into a 
false sense of security, that he knows what he's talking about.

That he is so spectacularly wrong also adds another layer to the list of 
"morals" in the tale: not all clever people are necessarily right all the 
time! A secondary one is that even the coolest families have nerdy black 
sheep. :-)

Having said that, I'd like to propose my own candidate for the landfill: 
Professor Minerva McGonagall. She seems to have a lot of lines in the 
books, but are they important?

Let's review her role to date: her biggest scene comes in PS/SS, when she 
has her conversation with Dumbledore at the very beginning, which is purely 
for the readers' benefit. This conversation could just as easily have been 
with Hagrid.

Her other big scene is "discovering" Harry as a natural Seeker. I think it 
would have made more sense for Wood as Quidditch Captain (perhaps together 
with the other 3 captains) to have been standing on the sidelines during 
the first years' flying lesson to scout for possible talent, and for *him* 
to invite Harry to join the team.

During CoS, even as temporary headmaster she achieves absolutely nothing. 
The school's run as if Dumbledore was still there, and all she can do is 
continue as if nothing had happened.

In PoA, her main scene is to be in the pub while Hagrid and Flitwick tell 
their recollections of the night the Potters were killed. Her presence is 
superfluous. A comment re. Percy was "how superfluous can you be if you're 
the third wheel in a
conversation?" What about being the *fourth* wheel? :-)

In GoF, I can find absolutely nothing which required McGonagall as such to 
be there. Her role in every scene she's in in GoF, as all other remaining 
scenes in which she appears in the books to date, could have been taken by 
any other teacher or Dumbledore (such as giving Hermione the Time-Turner; I 
think it would have played better dramatically if Dumbledore was the only 
person who knew she had it). She's clearly not a member of the "old crowd" 
(at least it's clear to me, anyone want to disagree?) and apart from being 
the only example for female readers until GoF that the Wizarding World 
*does* give women positions of responsibility, she has absolutely no role 
to play. Even so, her big moments as an authority figure fall seriously 
flat. In CoS, her approach as Headmistress seems to be one of constant 
hand-wringing and despair; given the job to guard a bound and prostate 
Crouch Jnr, she fails and all she can do is come running to Dumbledore.

So I say, "off to the SCOW with her! Not only is she a superfluous 
character, but she's an ineffectual leader as well!"

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, off for a dunk in the Bay