[HPforGrownups] Re: Quidditch as Metaphor/Krum

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 53688

I wrote, on Krum's taking the snitch knowing Bulgaria would lose:

> > 3.    The final score was 170 to 160. 
> > He gave up on his team when they
> > only needed to score only two more
> > goals in order to put victory within
> > reach.  One goal would have put a tie
> > within reach.  Krum's action sealed
> > the team's defeat.
> 
Petra Pan responded:

> Ah, here's where our readings diverge.  
> I don't see Krum as having given up 
> on his team at all, and he'd be 
> justified seeing that they were down 
> 160 points right before he caught 
> the Snitch.
> 
> In order for Bulgaria to win in your 
> scenario, two things have to happen: 
> (1) Krum must catch the Snitch AFTER 
> (2) Bulgaria outpace Ireland by at least 
> two goals.  And the previous action in 
> this game does not support this scenario: 
> Ireland is scoring 16 goals for every 
> goal that Bulgaria scored.
> 
I've seen many a sporting event in which one team appears completely outmatched in the early going, until something happens which shakes them up and gets their adrenaline going, spurring on a stirring comeback.  The role of momentum and attitude in sporting events can be just as important as talent.    Krum snatched an opportunity from his team at a point in time when they were not completely out of the game, and whether he did it in order to win glory or not, that was the effect.  He lacked faith in his team, and clinched their loss. 

> Then there's the fact that Lynch spots 
> the Snitch as Krum was taking a bludger 
> to his face.  At this point no feint is 
> going to divert Lynch and no referee is
> stopping the game.  What could Krum 
> do but to go after the Snitch despite 
> having just been injured?  Foul Lynch?  
> Can't really tell from text if it's 
> even possible for Krum to do so....
> 
But Lynch takes himself out of the chase.  "[Krum] was drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled toward the ground again . . . for the second time, Lynch hit the ground with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela. . . . Krum, his red robes shining with blood from his nose, was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand."  As I read this passage, the snitch hovered very close to the ground, and Lynch crashed trying to get it (he may have already been suffering from a concussion at this point and his concentration might have been off).  I don't think Krum played dirty by fouling Lynch.  Instead, Krum had a clear choice and he chose to take the snitch rather than to let it go.  

> Seeing that Ireland is outscoring 
> Bulgaria by 160 points at the time Krum 
> ended the game, perhaps we may extrapolate 
> from that ratio that perhaps by the time 
> that Bulgaria scores that two additional 
> goals, Ireland may possibly be hundreds of 
> points ahead.  If so, the 150 points that 
> the Snitch would bring would not do 
> Bulgaria much good.  This is why the fact 
> that Krum caught the Snitch in this 
> sequence of events doesn't indicate his 
> inability to be a team player to me, which 
> is why I don't see why he'd be the foil to 
> TeamPlayer!Harry.
> 
My take is that Lynch's failure to capture the snitch after having spotted it first could have been the catalytic event spurring the Bulgarian team to take their own game up a notch.  They weren't necessarily hopelessly out of it at that point.  Bulgaria had 10 points, which it earned the hard way and not through a penalty shot, so they were not incapable of scoring against the Irish team.  I think I might feel differently about Krum's actions if his team was down by 300 to 10.  Krum should have felt pretty confident at that point that he could beat Lynch to the snitch, unless his own broken nose and black eyes were robbing him of his concentration.  However, his refusal to accept medical attention for his injuries afterwards (which Harry sees through the omnioculars) can be read to suggest that Krum did not want to appear weak in public in any way.

Perhaps he did think his grab of the snitch preserved a measure of dignity for Bulgaria.  Perhaps his coach's treatment of him as the unquestioned star without whom the team would have gone nowhere led him to believe that his catching the snitch was the only thing that mattered.  It just so happened that it emphasized his stardom and left his team in the dust.

Debbie
who wishes everyone could be a winner


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