Sportsmanship in Harry Potter / Bad Slytherins

[Joe Goodwin]

No: HPFGUIDX 151799



Betsy Hp:
Um, that was my point actually.  The Gryffindors and the Slytherins 
behave about the same.  They trash talk, they play hard and dirty.  
The twins spy on the Slytherins while at the same time saying that 
the Slytherins will be rotten and spy on the Gryffindors.  Neither 
team cover themselves in glory, IMO.  But I doubt that's the point 
of quidditich.  Any sport that encourages its players to hit other 
players with iron balls can hardly claim it teaches clean playing.


  Joe: 
I don't think the Gryffindors play dirty. In the books I believe the only time any of them breaks the rules on the pitch is as a response to something the Slytherins did. defending your teammates is something good guys do as a matter of course.
   
  I also fail to see how the fact that Quidditch is dangerous takes away from any sportsmanship it might have. Like many sports it has a very paly hard play fair feel to it. Most guys growing up learn that pretty quickly. If you get hit hard has nothing to do with it.

Betsy Hp:
Heh.  Yeah.  Always best to listen to the mob, yes?  This is exactly 
why I think that if Hagrid is right, if all members of Slytherins 
are bad (except for the ones that pray really, really hard and 
change to Gryffindor colors) than JKR is supporting bigotry.  
Because I'm quite sure the Nazis made similar arguments.  So many 
stories about underhanded, greedy, grasping Jews can't *possibly* be 
built on nothing, right?  It just sends alarm bells off in my head.  
Evilness determined at the age of eleven just doesn't strike me as 
right, somehow.

Joe:
 Sorry but you are a bit off base here. Bigotry is based on nothing, a lack of knowledge. Putting aside the fact that the Sorting Hat "knows" where to put them that still doesn't account for the fact that the people who live with them for years think of them as low down dirty cheating sumbags. The other students know them better than anyone so I would have to give them the benefit of the doubt so as to judge their character. I don't know if you can be evil at eleven but I don't know that you can't either.
   
  Of course not all Slytherins are evil but you don't have to be evil to be a low down dirty cheating scumbag. Most of the Slytherins we know by name are crappy people but I don't think we can say anyone of them are evil unless its Draco.
   
  Must everyone be Redeemed in HP? 
  
Epic tales need good guys. The Gryffindors house imagery alone shows what they are. 
   
  Epic tales need bad guys. The Slytherin house imagery alone shows what they are.


Will every Slytherin be evil? Of course not. Do they suffer hugely by comparison to the Gryffindors? Well we know of one Gryffindor that turned out to be a Deather Eater. How many Slytherins did?
   
  The other Houses at Hogwarts know how they have been treated by the Slytherins if they think poorly of them then that would be at least highly damning wouldn't it?
   
  Joe