Sportsmanship in Harry Potter

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 151786

Karen" <kchuplis@> wrote:
> >
> > Here is my lonely take on it: if you showed every student what 
> happened to Harry at the Graveyard  and said, "you can have all 
> kinds of help and a nice broom and be given extra points in games, 
> but you have to go through that or you can skip having to 
experience 
> that and not get quite so much help" how many students would 
choose 
> to be tortured, cruciated, terrorized, humiliated and have people 
> killed in front of them, (only because they are  who they are) and 
> the person "came with" in order to get help and extras? I'm 
thinking 
> mmmm....no one would trade for that?
> > 
> > It's just a thought to put this in perspective.
> 
> Magpie:
> Since you've give the take twice: what perspective is this 
supposed 
> to give?  Because it sounds just kind of vaguely shaming, like 
> because Harry had a terrible time at the end of GoF and other 
> places, we shouldn't be discussing anything in the tournament 
> leading up to it, or perhaps anything in canon, except to nod and 
> say poor Harry, he deserves every scrap of happiness he can get. 
The 
> graveyard scene has nothing to do with the definition of 
> sportsmanship, or whether or not giving a student points 
for "moral 
> fibre" because he mistakenly thought lives were in danger and 
> stopped to save them, fits that term.  Or whether the author might 
> have written the hero losing something.

Alla:

I am not Karen, but I don't see anywhere in what she wrote an 
implication that we are not supposed to discuss the sportsmanship, 
etc. IMO of course.

Maybe my perspective would be different from what she meant, but I 
will try.

IMO graveyard scene has a great deal to do with the argument whether 
Harry LOSES any competitions, because Graveyeard scene shows me that 
despite getting the Cap, Harry in essense the biggest loser after 
the Tournament, well, no I guess he comes in second after poor 
Cedric who lost his life. Harry loses his innocence if he had any 
left yet, he lost the peace of mind, he was horribly tortured, etc.

I cannot look at the Triwizard tournament without Graveyeard scene, 
because in essense as we all know Harry's participation in the 
tournament was forced in order to make Graveyeard come true.

Harry lost as a result of his participation in the tournament and 
yes, I think what he lost cannot be compared to Victor Crum and 
Fleur coming in as third and fourth in the Tournament.


Magpie: 
> As for whether any of those students would choose to still be 
Harry 
> if they saw what happened in the graveyard?  Yes, many of them 
> probably would. 

Alla:

Can you refer me to relevant canon, please? For the students who 
know and believe that Harry was tortured because Voldemort was after 
him and who still want to be Harry? Sure many students want to be 
famous like him, but those who KNOW how much pain and loss is behind 
being Harry Potter and STILL want to be him. I am not sure I 
remember anybody.
I don't think that even Ron wants to be Harry in OOP, although not 
sure on that one, but really Ron was not at the Graveyard.

Magpie:
 Just like millions of kids all over the world read 
> Harry's books and wish they were him. 

Alla:

I really liked the argument in one of Lexicon essays that kids 
IDENTIFY with Harry, they already feel that Harry is similar to them 
in many ways, not that they inspire to be like him.

But of course many younger kids want to do magic, live in 
Potterverse, etc. I do wonder whether even teenagers still feel that 
way ( have no statistics unfortunately). 

JMO,

Alla