Dumbledore the General (Status of Order members)

[northsouth17]

No: HPFGUIDX 124325



> northsouth17 wrote:
> > DD is perfectly willing to consort with the 
> > edges of society, and not just Sirius, Lupin, Hagrid and others 
who 
> > are wrongfully accused, but Mundungus FLetcher, who is actively 
> > persuing various shady deals all throughout OoTP
> 
> 
> Now Astrofiammante replies:
> 
> So here's another way of looking at it. From the point of view of
> plotting the books, of ratcheting up the narrative tension, of
> generating sympathy from us on behalf of gentle-giant Hagrid, and
> hard-done-by Lupin, and falsely-imprisoned Sirius and so on, doesn't
> it actually help no end that 'our' boys and girls (ie the Order) are
> the underdogs?

Of course it does, and I love them for it. I'm rather nastily hoping 
that they'll stay the underdog too, simply beacause that's what I 
love to read. But Mundungus isn't an underdog as such. He's just a 
criminal, albeit one who is fighting Voldemort. I like Dung well 
enough, mind, but I don't think that it can be said that DD is 
putting the morality of means above the morality of ends for the good 
of the war, when he is willing to use the contacts of shady 
charecters like Dung, unless DD considers theft and fencing an 
ethical thing to do.

I like the Order very much, individually and collectively, beacuse 
they're nice and funny and interesting and the underdogs, but it 
wouldn't be a horrible clash for me to see them do some thoroughly 
unpleasant things, though I might not be happy for them, because I 
believe that what they need to be doing, and because, *nice* as they 
are, they're not the most ethical of folks. 

Northsouth