Harry using Crucio

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 174249

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sneeboy2" <sneeboy2 at ...> wrote:
> 
> My beef is with the author, not the fictional hero. She has spent a
> good bit of ink establishing that the "unforgivable" curses are just
> that, that only the bad guys use them, that the effects of them are
> horrible, and so forth. Then, at almost the end of the tale, where 
one expects the moral of the story to be the clearest, she inserts a 
scene that indicates that, under some circumstances, using an 
unforgivable is OK, even gallant. There's no nuanced examination, as 
we're having here, of precisely what those circumstances are. There's 
no indication that maybe using the curse was a "moral lapse," as you 
put it. 
> 
Personally, I don't think the scene is intended to show the
character's flaws, or to raise a moral debate. There would be no point
in doing either so late in the story. It seems designed solely to
elicit a little cheer from an audience that, having sat through six
books in which the good guys are rather painfully good, is hungry for
a little eye-for-an-eye justice. The scene is very Hollywood in that
> way, right down to the punchline about having to "mean it" -- though
> perhaps hot as Hollywood as Mrs. Weasley's "bitch" line, which felt
> lifted right from "Aliens." I had to wonder whether JKR had the
> movie-version of DH in mind when she wrote these scenes. Call me a
> killjoy, but I felt pandered to in both cases.

va32h:

THANK YOU! Yes, yes, I completely agree. I am the person who 
submitted the Crucio question in the live chat - and JKR completely 
missed my point (the question was cut off as well, there was one more 
part about Harry's mental consequences). 

I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH HARRY USING CRUCIO. Shouting only because I 
can't use bold - no problem at all with him USING the curse - every 
human being has felt that sort of impulse at some point. I have a 
huge problem with him cheerfully enjoying it and feeling nary a 
twinge of even regret afterwards. Harry could hardly live with 
himself after accidentally harming Draco with Sectumsempra, but 
apparently, being able to enjoy hurting someone is some sort of mark 
of maturity. 

But this is nothing new, really. In the past, Hermione has kidnapped, 
imprisoned, and blackmailed Rita Skeeter, permanently disfigured a 
classmate, led Umbridge into what Hermione not only believed, but 
hoped would be a violent attack by centaurs. The twins experiment on 
younger students, and shoved Montague into a Vanishing Cabinet, 
neither knowing or caring what happened to him. 

And I completely understand that we are supposed to cheer, not 
chastise. The people who get punished are the "bad guys", it's our 
heroes who are doling out the justice. 

But those actions seem out of place in a series that allegedly 
preaches "It's our choices that make us who we are". JKR can say that 
all she wants, but what she shows us is that it's their motivations, 
their loyalties, that make her characters what they are. There are no 
intrinisically bad acts, there are only intrinsically bad people. 

And speaking of Hollywood scenes and pandering to an audience, let me 
offer Harry and Voldemort's made-for-the-cinema face off. "So the 
question is," asks Harry "Do you feel lucky, punk? Er...I mean, does 
the wand in your hand know it's last master was defeated?" 

va32h