Sportsmanship/legitimacy

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 151967

Betsy HP
> 
> Would you feel your child had been treated fairly?  Would you be 
> comfortable with the implication that your daughter *wasn't* a 
> humanitarian?  And what if one of the judges was the grandfather of 
> the "humanitarian" winner?  Would you still see this as an example of 
> good sportsmanship?

Pippin:
Huh?  So they should stop awarding the Nobel Peace Prize because it's
unfair to other humanitarians? Are you saying that if you were 
Cedric, you'd never have offered to cede the cup to Harry because
Harry had been given an unfair advantage in entering the maze?

It's really a question of expectations -- if you think that character
shouldn't count, then it's going to seem unfair that Dumbledore
"all of a sudden" decided to award points for character. But if
you think that was part of the contest all along, then there's
nothing to complain about.  I would think Cedric is more 
familiar with the rules and customs of the TWT than we are,
and he obviously doesn't think he's been treated unfairly.

Does this debate remind anyone else of the Kobayashi Maru
secenario

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru

and the question of whether Star Fleet should have commended
Capt. Kirk for reprogramming the test? Do people who think
Dumbledore was showing bias also think that Capt. Kirk should
have been disqualified for cheating?

In the movie,  the downside of Capt. Kirk's success was that
he had no experience of failure, so that the movie could show
him coping with it for the first time.   But JKR had already shown 
Harry in failure and defeat with the Quidditch cup in
PS/SS and the match with Hufflepuff in PoA. Instead of showing
us Harry defeated again, JKR gives Harry a victory in the TWT 
which turns out to be a hollow one, for which he wishes
to have no glory and no reward.

Pippin