Fred and George: The Bullies You Do Know - Round II

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 65107

I must be crazy to start this again, but hey! we've got new canon!

Message 43024 - August 22, 2002

Elkins:
>But I just have to say it. I do not like the twins. At all. 
>I think that they are a pair of mean insensitive bullies, and 
>I tend to feel that the only reason that readers don't generally
>perceive them as such is because we see the story through Harry's
>eyes -- and Harry happens to be inside of the magic circle of 
>people the twins perceive as their in-group, and who are 
>therefore protected from their harrassment.

The entire, quite spirited discussion can be read in the archives. 

Now, I don't feel up to writing a thesis on the new canon yet, so 
I'll just bring up two side points  for discussion.

1. Percy and the Twins

Elkins - Message 43162
>let me just say that I really don't see the twins' interactions 
>with Percy in GoF as normal or acceptable at all. By GoF, I think
>that it is bullying.
and
>It seems clear to me that the Weasley family dynamic is in a 
>good deal of trouble in GoF. Percy has become so deeply alienated
>from the rest of his family that he has chosen to transfer his
>filial loyalties onto his employer Crouch -- a man who doesn't 
>even know his name.

HF responded:
> They do put Percy at his wits' end, but unlike Elkins's friend, 
> Percy has not been driven away from his home, nor is there any 
> indication that he'd prefer to live elsewhere. 

Well, well, well...

Anyone up for discussion?

2. Train... Incident II

Cindy - Post 43140
>See, Harry is not a bully and he knows it would be *wrong* to 
>step on an unconscious person out of spite. So Harry steps 
>*over* the three unconscious people rather than tread on them, 
>even though I suspect he would dearly love to jump up and down 
>on them. 

What does it say that when Fred and George have left the scene, the 
Train... Incident becomes a matter of cool self-defence with no 
trodding on unconscious bodies?

More on the twins and Sirius later, 

Eileen