In defense of the bad guys (was: The importance of Luna)

[jdr0918]

No: HPFGUIDX 80166

People are talking about:
<<Luna has a whole chapter named for her!  I think her intuitive 
gifts will be important for Harry's development in the future.>>
<<Tonks...has been given a great deal of crap because of her 
clumsiness...Clumisness does not equal unintelligence or evil>>
<<the dreaded prank>>
<<Snape and/or Malfoy vs. Hermione>>

The Sergeant Majorette says

Childhood is supposed to be challenging; adolescence is supposed to 
be rough. Only the strong survive, otherwise the planet would be 
overrun with...oh, wait, it is.

Theory is, you get tested while you still have parents you can run 
home to if you flunk the test the first time. You have plenty of 
opportunity to develop an adaptive strategy that suits you. Then, 
after you qualify, you administer the test to the next generation.

Strategies demonstrated:
Harry is no wuss to begin with, despite a near-Dickensian level of 
psychological and physical abuse. He has figured out just how much 
defiance he can get away with; he continually pushes the envelope; 
Dudley kicks his physical butt on a regular basis, but Harry never 
loses his self-esteem.

Hermione is persecuted and insulted by Malfoy: her reaction? 
Annoyance. Notice how she never takes him seriously as a Dark threat? 
Snape drives her to tears, but what's her boggart? Someone she 
respects telling her she failed at something she wants to do. 
(Freebie, guys: learn to distinguish between tears of hurt and 
sadness and PMS-amplified tears of rage.)

Luna is targeted by her peers, but never tormented. Well, it would be 
torment if she let it be, but that's her adaptive strategy: "the 
golden girls don't want to hang out with me, but I ask myself why? Is 
it because I don't want to do the things they want to do? And do I 
want to hang out with them? Not really, I answer myself." Luna has 
the wisdom and sense of self to respect the opinions of those who 
don't like her.

Now, Snape should have done what Neville does: accept his 
limitations, not let his resentment lead him to bite off more than he 
can chew. Neville knows he's either going to grow out of them or find 
compensatory strengths that draw friends to him. In the meantime, he 
understands that the golden ones can't help it if they're better than 
you.

Sirius had his own family problems, no doubt just as tragic as 
Snape's, but less compelling because he was goodlooking. Even a 
scrawny (back in the day) four-eyed nerd like myself often found 
herself wondering why people were so mean to pretty girls. Given the 
chance, do you really think Snape wouldn't have done something 
equally horrific to Sirius?

And Peter Pettigrew, give me a break, what a leech. How soon do you 
think the other three were regretting the charitable impulse that 
brought him into their inner circle? I was a squad leader in basic 
training, which is a little like the boarding school prefect (no, I 
wasn't popular or likely to be-- I think the drill sergeant simply 
realized I was too old to care); one quickly learns that some people 
are so needy that protecting them imperils the mission. That's the 
difference between a geek and a nerd: nerds have friends, other nerds 
whom they like and respect, whereas geeks dislike themselves and 
others like them.

Ahh, they're screaming, you're blaming the victim! Yeah, I am, at 
least in these cases. Not every victim is an innocent victim; maybe 
it was a fair fight so why demonize the winner?

--JDR