What's annoying about Harry

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51394


Melody wrote: 
I am sorry you do not think it high quality enough, 
but it is honest and heart felt. If you disagree, 
which really what fun is the site if we all agree, 
then by all means post your perspectives. Just 
please don't call your detractors' views boring. 
Makes you seem very high and mighty.

I reply:
I don't believe I've detracted from anyone here. And I 
certainly haven't criticized the quality of anyone's posts.

Quite to the contrary, I have complimented both Grey Wolf and 
Catherine on the well-thought out nature of their posts.

I am sorry if you interpreted my comments as high and 
mighty. That was not at all my intent, and I feel bad
that my words could have been interpreted that way.

As you conclude in your subsequent paragraph, perhaps
I should have said "obvious," or that I believed that 
they were being "dubbed:" well, sort of, but not like 
that.

My point was that the series is already written from
Harry's perspective. The things that Harry does that 
are annoying, we know why he does them. When he's 
stubborn, we know why. When he's disrespectful, we
know why. We already know why Harry behaves the way 
that he does, because everything's from his point of
view. So, when someone speculates that Harry
is out of line, that person is going out on a limb...
and they know it in advance. All I'm saying is that the 
people who defend Harry really don't have to. I 
understand that they want to, and that the defenses are
heartfelt. But it's not necessary, because we all are
already acquainted with Harry's position.


Tom:
PS/SS: Hagrid repeatedly tells HHR that it's
"rubbish" that Snape would try to steal the stone.
Do they listen? Nope. They instead spend the whole
time trying to falsely prove that he is a thief and
killer.

Melody wrote:
Oh, so the fact they were on the trail of the *wrong* thief is what is
wrong? Or is it the fact they were on the trail at all bother you?

I reply:
What's wrong is that they, having no evidence of any sort, accused an 
innocent man of committing two very heinous crimes. And it sets the 
backdrop for the whole story through GoF. HHR continue to accuse 
Snape of all sorts of vile things, and he's never guilty. What's 
annoying about it is that they continue doing it - in other words, 
they don't learn from the previous mistakes, they just keep making 
the same ones.


Melody wrote: 
So, the fact Harry can hear "voices" and talk parseltongue (which 
they *did* know about, by the way, when Harry went to Dumbledore?s 
office. Snape learned it in the duel club.)  

I reply:
That's right, they did know about it in Dumbledore's office.  But 
they could have known about it a lot sooner. And if Harry had been 
forthcoming a little earlier, the problem would have been solved. 

Granted, not as much fun for us readers. ;-)


Melody wrote:
But can you honestly say at the age of 13, you would of been so open?

I reply:
If I was 13 and learning about animagi in class? Yes, yes I think I 
might have been a little more receptive to explanations concerning 
animagi.


I wrote:
But what REALLY annoys me is the way
that they turn these same criticisms on Snape once he starts
behaving the same way they were a few minutes ago. And then
they attack him for it. Unbelievable.

Melody wrote:
Oh tell me you are joking. Snape is, after all, acting like a person
that is not taking reason into account, which is precisely what you
are complaining about in this post. Shack!Snape presented in that
scene not a drop of reason in him.

I reply:
Exactly - Snape would not appear to be reasonable, and Harry's exact 
criticism is that he won't listen to explanations - when HHR, five 
minutes before, had refused to listen to explanations. The way you 
see it, HHR's stubbornness is refreshing, and Snape's is annoying. 
But they're both a refusal to listen to explanations... except one is 
good, and one is bad.

Again, the only reason we see one as good and one as bad is because 
we're privy to the inner workings of Harry's 13-year old mind, and 
we're not privy to Snape's. So, Harry being stubborn = endearing. 
Snape being stubborn = insane.

That's what I'm talking about, and that's one of the things that 
annoy me about Harry's behavior.

-Tom, who really does like Harry, but is annoyed by him from time to 
time, and who was thankfully donned some mental armor before he wrote 
the first post in this thread, titled it, and then ever so evilly hit 
the 'send' button.  ;-)