The OOTP Gripe List, v. 5,432

[Tammy]

No: HPFGUIDX 126098


lupinlore wrote:

> 1) Dumbledore.  Many people found him OOC in the last book. 
> Particularly they found his decisions and actions implausible and
> sometimes downright unbelievable in light of his previous actions and
> characterization.

Tammy:
I think my biggest objection to Dumbledore in OOTP is that he's
treating Harry too much like a child. I firmly believe in
Puppetmaster!Dumbledore pre-OOTP and OOTP breaks that a little too
much. He goes from manipulating Harry (and co.) to find the Sorcerer's
Stone, to enter the Chamber, to find out about Remus and Sirius, to
stay in the Triward Tournament, to suddenly not wanting Harry to be in
danger? Hello? Dumbledore's the one who PUT Harry in danger in every
pre-OOTP book.

> lupinlore wrote:
> 2) Harry.  I think all of the people involved in this latest set of
> discussions agree that his anger was believable.  However, he seemed
> to have curious (and, some suspect, authorally convenient) lapses in
> smarts, particularly not bothering to open the mirror -- and I would
> add that it seems contrived that neither Sirius nor Remus mentioned
> the mirror during his firecall (as in, why aren't you using the
> mirror, Harry?).

Tammy:
Harry's always been arrogant, rash, and lacking in judgement. As
Hermione pointed out, he has a bit of a "saving people thing" that has
gone to his head. He's been "right" up until OOTP, so why not continue
this trend? Okay, so it backfired and got his beloved godfather
killed. So now he'll finally learn his lesson about thinking before
you act - and maybe even listening to his friends. If you ask me, it's
about time Harry got that lesson.



> lupinlore wrote:
> 4) Ginny.  Her shift in personality came out of left field, and leaves
> many people feeling that JKR was playing fast and loose with her
> character in order to move her overnight into position for some future
> role, quite possibly as Harry's love interest.

Tammy:
Ginny's development HAD to happen off-screen. Ginny's stumbling block,
personality-wise, has been Harry up to now. She had a huge crush on
him. Perhaps some people are simply too far from their first crush to
remember the mind-numbing effect that it has on a person. She's
tongue-tied and can't even think straight when Harry's around. As the
books are from Harry's POV, we're not going to see Ginny actually get
over that. Girls generally mature a lot from 12 - 14, and that's about
the age range that both Hermione and Ginny went through their sudden
change. Beyond that, boys are dim and don't notice a thing when it
comes to girls at that age. Ginny's overnight change was perfectly
understandable and necessary.


> lupinlore wrote:
> 5.  Hermione.  She seemed shrill and unsympathetic to some people, and
> many object to the fact that she was always right.  This last trait
> was especially grating, as it leads many to believe she was
> essentially a clumsy insertion of JKR herself into the text.  It also
> raised doubts that Hermione will undergo any kind of maturation in the
> next two books.  After all, how can she learn much-needed humility and
> respect for non-intellectual gifts if she's ALWAYS right?
> 

Tammy:
I think the Centaur incident will have taught Hermione some much
needed lessons, at least I'm hoping so. Hermione is who she is. She's
been the same obnoxious always-right character since the beginning.
JKR's gotta change that soon, or it's going to seem just too fake.