MadEye & Malfoy - James & Snape - Everyone & Umbridge

[mkaliz]

No: HPFGUIDX 68034

Pickle Jimmy said:

> Why do we love Snape so much? Everyone is anti-James because we see 
> an *edited* snippet of the way he treated Snape, but we see none of 
> how Snape treated him, none of the "pre-pensieve event" life.
> 
> None of us are anti-MadEye!Crouch because he turned Malfoy into a 
> ferret. Because Malfoy is a Git.
> 
> None of us is sticking up for Umbridge - poor woman get's undermined 
> by teachers, left to the centaurs, and then run out of Hogwarts by 
> students and staff alike. We still don't think she got her just 
> desserts. Because Umbridge is a Git.
> 
> So why are there so many "Snape Admirers" out there??

Just because a character is "nice" doesn't make him or her *interesting*.

In the spirit of Hagrid's "interesting creatures," I will say that I
like *interesting characters.*

That doesn't mean that they're warm and cuddly or "nice" to any of the
protagonists (like Harry) with whom we are generally meant to identify
with. Such characters might be cruel or dangerous, and they might be
predisposed to rip your arm off if you get too close. 

If you want nice, go for a cute one-dimensional puffskein. Personally,
I'll take a blast ended skrewt or a hippogriff, any day!

Your mileage, of course, may vary. ;-)

I like 3-D, complicated, and flawed characters, whether they happen to
be "nice" or not. Is it any surprise then, that I find Snape--who's
been skulking around all 5 books with shadowy motives and an angsty,
dark back story--"interesting"? I enjoyed Crouch-as-Moody and Umbridge
too, though they were a lot more one-sided than Snape has turned out
to be.

And, just for the record, I wasn't one of those readers who cheered
when Crouch-as-Moody turned Draco into a ferret. Like McGonagall, I
thought that his behavior was over-the-top. Understandable, given
Crouch's attitude towards Death Eaters who "walked" but still over the
top.

I, for one, am glad that JKR has populated her world with so many
fascinating characters, many of whom (like James, and Snape, and
Sirius) break the stereotype of nice = Good and mean = evil. 

--kai