A Defense of James Potter(Whose flaws are bigger)

[frumenta]

No: HPFGUIDX 175461

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Christine Maupin 
<keywestdaze at ...> wrote:

> 
>  Nice post Adam and I like your "It's a Wonderful Life" approach.  
There are two events in James's life that I would like to add 
because I think they are true measure of the man -- in both, James 
rushed headfirst into danger with hesitation to save those he cared 
about.
> 
> 
> The second was October 31, 1981: "Lily, take Harry and go!  It's 
him!  Go!  Run!  I'll hold him off--"  (POA, p. 240)  James rushed 
knowingly to his death (and in DH we find out without his wand), in 
an effort to warn his wife and give her a few extra moments to grab 
their son and get to safety.  Did James's death change anything or 
save anyone's life?  No.  Harry certainly has no doubt how much his 
dad loved him and his mum though (which appears to be more than the 
other two abandoned boys can say).
> 
> No matter what else one can say about James, good or bad, it would 
be hard to deny his courage and loyalty.  And based on Lily's 
letter, the photograph, and his death, he seems to have been a good 
husband and father; and, in my opinion, you can't pay a man a higher 
compliment than that.
> 
> Christy
> 
> 
>  
>        
> ---------------------------------
> Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally,  mobile search that gives answers, not 
web links. 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I found this post quite intriguing. I wanted to read it because ever 
since OotP my feelings for James went from indifference to outright 
hatred and I haven't managed to shake them.

It is a combination of canon and his bullying ways and how he and 
his friends continued bullying Snape even after nearly killing him 
in the Prank. It's in his descriptions, his air of having been taken 
care of that Snape lacked. It's in how JKR described his upbringing 
in an interview as the son of parents who had him late in life and 
doted on him. How he was rich and good in sports and presumably 
smart... He is the quintessential jock in a movie and on top of 
everything he got the girl. It's also, from JK again that he never 
needed a well-paid employment. How he didn't notice that Peter 
resented him all these years and went along with the change in 
Secret Keeper and how passive Lily was in all that (didn't she have 
any friends? We're meant to believe that James' friends are her only 
friends too). 

And then there's the mind-boggling fact that this guy who has 
Voldemort after him, who has supposedly thrice defied Voldie as 
stated in the Prophecy just lies back and plays with his kid in the 
house while there's a Dark Lord in his back yard. Said Dark Lord 
blasts his door open and James sprints to the hall to see what 
happened without bothering to pick up his wand. Just how stupid was 
this guy? And I just love how he tells Lily that he'll hold back 
Voldemort... How exactly? What did he do for a living anyway? What 
did he do in the Order? Sure, there was the whole Secret Keeper 
business but what if Peter was tortured and forced to give away the 
secret? He didn't have any other measures, any way to get his family 
out of there.

And I just don't like James used as a symbol. How Harry has to live 
his life thinking "What would James do?" How Sirius and James and 
even Peter always use James' memory to manipulate Harry every chance 
they get. Sirius to get him to be more reckless, Remus plenty of 
times, to remind him that James wouldn't distrust his friends ('cept 
for Remus of course and that must have stung) so urging Harry not to 
be like James and then when he wants to ditch his kid and go with 
Harry, he tells Harry that James would want that. It's like... I 
feel that they used James' name to get Harry to do anything and I'm 
glad that Harry eventually saw through that and didn't let them.

Do I think that James was evil? No. He was a bully as a teen and 
probably grew out of it. He offered a second home to Sirius. He 
helped Remus with his transformations (putting people in danger, of 
course because what did it matter if Remus actually bit someone in 
one of their many close calls as long as they had lots of great 
adventures together, right?). He wasn't a bigot and he hated the 
Dark Arts and he defied Voldemort. I'm guessing also good husband 
and father, Lily seems happy with him and he seems like a doting if 
not terribly vigilant dad to Harry.

But all that might not be enough for someone to like him or to have 
any opinion of him, really. I really don't like what I've seen but 
it's not really something tangible once you get past 15 year old 
bullying James. He's just boring and even though he seems to have 
been such an important force in so many lives, Sirius practically 
lived for him, Peter hated him enough to hate him, Lily had a child 
with him and Snape hated him even after death the character himself 
comes short anyway you look at him. I think JKR truly failed with 
him.


Mim

(jumping in the fray after several years, I think the last time I 
posted had been after OotP or something)