Respecting the Dursleys/Dudley, Draco, some Regulus

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 159524

> Ceridwen:
<HUGE SNIP>
> This will be a rude surprise for him when he does become an adult.  
> The way the law is structured in many places now is that a child is 
> not responsible for its own actions, someone else will get the 
> blame.  Parents of habitual truants have been sent to jail in the 
UK, 
> for instance.  The child experiences no consequences for its 
actions 
> and will be shocked to find that they will get fired from a job for 
> the same sort of thing.  Dudley will have many shocks as he grows 
> older, courtesy of Vernon and Petunia.

Alla:

Ooooo, yes, absolutely. See what would helped me if in some way or 
another I would have seen that shock, like if in school Dudley would 
have knocked down and fast, if instead of bully, he would have 
experienced some bullying. I want to see at least a glimpse of that 
rude facing of big world. I mean, I know it is a Harry story of 
course, but something like that would have been nice for me.

The one moment when I had a tiniest pity for Dudley was when he was 
attacked by Dementors. More of that would have been great IMO.


> Pippin:
> How to put this...the Dursleys are to parenting what bleeding and 
purging
> are to doctoring--in most cases you'd be better off to let nature 
take its
> course. They do not know how to set limits, and they have 
consistently
> given Dudley more presents, more food, more priveleges and more
> stimulation than he can handle. He has never learned to be satisfied
> with what he has, and until he does he can't really ever be happy.
> If it weren't for the school nurse and the boxing team he'd be well
> on his way to eating himself to death, and yet he doesn't take
> pleasure in his food, not like Slughorn does. It's never good 
enough.


Alla:

Oh, but I know that Dursleys overindulge Dudley, I totally understand 
that - I suppose if I would have seen him being unhappy because of 
that, I would have been able to feel something here.

I mean, and his weight issues should have made me feel something, 
since I also always had weight issues ( maybe not as big as 
Dursley's, but I am also in need of losing weight - not to lose 
weight for the sake of it, but truly need to) and even that does not 
make me sympathise with him.
Oh, could you point me to quote that Dudley does not take pleasure in 
his food? That is actually helpful.

Pippin:
> When he bullies we don't see him taking pleasure in scaring or 
hurting 
> people the way Draco does --  Dudley does it to impress his gang 
and keep 
> them entertained.

Alla:

That is actually interesting too. Dudley struggling for attention?

Pippin:
 Maybe that was the point of naming the victim Evans? 
> It could be Dudley's not as different from James as you might think.

Alla:

Only when we will see James bullying someone several years younger 
than him :) Somebody pointed out though that the same word is used in 
description of Dudley as James ( forgot which one), so maybe indeed 
Dudley will end up heroically fighting against evil and dying ;)

Doubt so though as of now.


> Alla:
> *(snip)*
> > It is like with Draco - I do feel that he is likely headed to 
> redemption and am feeling rather sorry for myself, because usually 
I 
> eat those stories with the spoon, but I hated him for so long and 
for 
> five books JKR did not give me ONE deed of Draco which is worth 
> sympathy ( that is only my impressionn of course), so this 
redemption 
> story will leave me untouched, most likely.
>  
> I want to buy Dursleys as abused child and want to sympathise with 
> him. Help me?
> 
> Ceridwen:
> Sometimes, a person who should have our sympathy is not given our 
> sympathy because, as you said, they have no sympathetic 
> characteristics.  Through the first five books, Draco appeared to 
be 
> merely "School Bully #1", the one with the speaking lines.  We get 
> some idea that he is somewhat artistic, if even in a snide way - he 
> made up "Weasley Is Our King", for instance, and made the "Potter 
> Stinks" buttons.  But, he didn't seem to have the "soul of an 
> artist", the stereotypical sensitivity and all the other trappings 
of 
> a fragile artistic temperament.  On the tower, we see how deep his 
> feelings for his family do run.
<SNIP>

Alla:

Hehe, sensitivity of the artist. How about just not mercilessly 
participating in the show I am so hurt that innocent animal deserves 
to die because of that for starters and many other things.

Funny thing is that if the first time I would heard of Draco in HBP 
and his story, he would definitely had some of my sympathy then.

Like I did not even met Regulus Black yet, I already pitied him even 
after Sirius not very sympathetic portrayal of him in OOP and in HBP, 
oh my, Regulus is probably my favorite minor character in the books 
now and their stories (Darco and his) are supposed somehow to be 
sympathetic.

I don't know about Regulus much, he probably behaved at school just 
as bad ( from my POV of course) as Draco - looked down at muggle 
borns and stuff, but since the only thing I know about him is his 
fall and redemption - love, love, love it.

Does it make sense? Of course younger generation is portrayed in more 
depth, so we shall see.

I know one thing - I was not sympathising with Draco's crying in HBP, 
it was like - oh yes, you finally get what you deserve little shmack 
and assasin to be, you finally know what it is to be bullied. But 
that may led a foundation for me to feel something for Draco in book 
7, unlikely but could happen, so would be nice to see Dudley suffer, 
hehe ;)

Alla, with apologies to Ceridwen for rearranging her post