Whose side are we on?? (was: Arthur right or not? ( was Hate crimes (was Re: muggle baiting v

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 155996

> >>Ceridwen:
> > So, the twins are the agents of Karma? 

> >>Lupinlore:
> Sure, why not?  Karma has many agents, and often they are quite 
> unlikely.  The whole Dudley-tongue episode was hilarious Karmic 
> justice, pure and simple.

Betsy Hp:
But JKR doesn't keep it simple.  It's JKR who chose to have Arthur 
*raging* against his sons' actions.  And it's JKR who quickly 
follows the twins's scene up with Death Eaters taking their prank a 
few steps further.  Not so simple anymore.

JKR doesn't keep it pure either.  Dudley isn't fresh from attacking 
Harry.  In fact he's spent the entire day terrified of an upcoming 
Wizard visit, his attack from the last visit (which again, Dudley 
had done nothing to bring upon himself) obviously fresh in his mind.

So if this was *supposed* to be pure and simple karmic justice, why 
does JKR put so much effort into muddying the waters?  Myself, I 
have enough faith in JKR's ability to emotionally tweak a scene I 
get a bit suspicious when such gapping holes are left in 
the "deserved justice" argument.

[For an example of pure and simple karmic justice, check out Roald 
Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".]

> >>Alla:
> <snip>
> What I find amusing is that while **good guys** are held to the
> highest ethical standards of behavior, Snape and Draco's behavior
> gets excused pretty much for everything IMO.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Hmm, I'm a pretty big Snape fan and a pretty big Draco fan.  And 
sure, they both have fangirls and fanboys who think they can do no 
wrong.  I haven't seen them on this list, though.  People argue that 
Snape and Draco aren't *evil*, but there's usually an ability to 
recognize when they've behaved badly.  That I've seen anyway.

For myself I haven't said that Hermione is evil.  Heck, I've even 
tried to be rational about the twins and not call *them* evil in the 
discussion about their pranking Dudley.  I'm just saying that in 
those cases they behaved badly.  But for Hermione and the twins the 
argument seems to be: they can do no wrong.  Frankly, in this 
series, I don't think *any* character can expect such an easy way of 
it.  Honestly, I think there's much more of a middle ground going on 
here than is usually expected of this sort of story.

Betsy Hp