Does Viktor Krum become an important character?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119037


Ces wrote:
> I don't dislike anyone who is tone-deaf, nor do I hate Krum because 
> he's a foreigner.  I just don't like the character.  And yes I do 
> understand some sounds are hard to pronounce in other languages.  I 
> speak french and german and while I did have a hard time with the the
> gutteral g in german, I did finally grasp it.  Not as well as a 
> native, but I was able to maintain a conversation.
> 
> It is Krum's character that I dislike and his not pronouncing 
> Hermione's name correctly is just one little thing that irritates 
> me.  Anything Krum did in GoF managed to irritate me, just as 
> anything Draco Malfoy does also irritates me.  I just didn't take to 
> that character from the beginning. <snip>

Carol responds:
We all have characters we don't care for or find irritating. I really
dislike Dobby, and although I find Kreacher simultaneously despicable,
pitiable, and entertaining, he's a bit too much like Gollum for my
taste (I enjoy reading Gollum in LOTR and love the way Andy Serkis
captured the character, but I don't like thinking about Gollum when
I'm trying to live in the WW.) So I understand perfectly that a
character can rub you the wrong way.

But I'm wondering why you think Krum is not what he seems--a famous
athlete who is in all other respects an ordinary and very shy
schoolboy with few social skills? He seems to genuinely like Hermione
and to respect his opponents, especially Harry. It's not his fault
that Crouch!Moody Imperio'd him and made him Crucio Cedric. He seems
ashamed of that action, as if it were his own doing, and seems
surprised to be welcomed back to Hogwarts. But how is it his fault? I
don't suppose he's been taught to resist an Imperius Curse though he's
probably been taught to cast one.

That's where *my* problem with Krum arises. He's a Durmstrang student
and has therefore been taught the Dark Arts. Does that include the
Unforgiveable Curses? And if he's been taught to cast them (he didn't
have any trouble casting a Crucio under the Imperius Curse) does that
mean he's used them on other people? Surely not. Even Karkaroff
wouldn't teach his students to torture and kill each other. That would
be suicidal. How do they practice the Unforgiveables, then? Do they
cast them at dummies or mirrors or targets? And do they Imperio each
other? (Is that the way the DEs learn them, too?) So much of it is
mental--you have to really want to hurt someone to cast an effective
Cruciatus Curse. You have to be a cold manipulator to cast an
effective Imperius Curse. And you have to either hate deeply or be
wholly indifferent to human life to cast an AK. At least that's the
way I understand it. It's the mindset required as much as the effects
of those curses that makes them Unforgiveable.

I like Viktor Krum and I admire him for not letting the girls who
follow him around go to his head. (He probably knows that if he
weren't a Quidditch champion, they wouldn't give him a second glance.)
But I worry about him. He's been taught the Dark Arts, apparently
including the Unforgiveables. He was Karkaroff's favorite boy, and we
know what Karkaroff is or was. Is it safe to have Viktor on the good side?

Carol