Heroes in the Harry Potter Series

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 176198

> >>Mike:
> Yeah, what was he [Harry] thinking, when he walked into the forest? 
> <massive snip>
> So Dumbledore cooked up a plan to set this biggest of his mistakes 
> right. But I guess if heroes overcome their flaws and orchestrate   
> the correction of their mistakes from earlier on, they must instead 
> be just manipulative old bastards. Seems we are particular about   
> which flaws we allow our heroes to have, and cannot forgive some   
> mistakes even when they are ultimately corrected.

Betsy Hp:
I think it comes down to what Magpie said.  It's not that anyone's 
looking for perfect hereos.  It's just some things are palatable for 
some folks, and other things are not.  Neither Harry nor Dumbledore 
are palatable for me.  Not because they're not perfect, but because 
their flaws are, for me, utterly fatal.  There are things I cannot 
admire.  And both Harry and Dumbledore do and/or have them.

Though I will say that for me, it's not so much a particular flaw, 
it's how that flaw is handled.  Alla brought up the 
Lancelot/Arthur/Guinevere love triangle.  And there are some versions 
of that tale that make the adultary pretty unpalatable, I agree.  But 
in other versions, I've wept for all involved.  Including Mordred 
which is a bit of a hat trick. <g>  Which means, I suppose, it all 
comes down to how the author spins things.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Snape was so wrapped up in his own failings he utterly failed the 
> > children placed under his care.  He was horribly abused, so I 
> > cannot find it in myself to dislike him to the same extent I 
> > dislike Harry and co.

> >>Mike:
> I guess we've assumed that Snape was abused by his father.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I was more thinking about the general abuse a Slytherin child faces 
in the WW.  And it was doubly bad for Snape because he tried to make 
himself worthy of a Gryffindor's love.  So he became Lily's slave and 
Dumbledore's dog.  His entire life defined by doors shut in the face 
of his apologies and the words, "You disgust me" ringing in his ears.

At first I was pretty upset that Snape had let down the Malfoys 
(especially Draco) and all of the Slytherin children placed under his 
care.  Then I realized that I was expecting far too much of what was 
essentially a woefully abused and mishandled child who grew into a 
broken man.  (A plant kept out of the sun, indeed.)

JKR would have me believe (I think this was her thinking anyway) that 
*as* a Slytherin Snape was so incapable of feeling love and 
friendship that he never really missed it.  But she breathed too much 
depth into her Slytherin characters in earlier books for me to buy 
their shallowness in the last one.  (DH's Crabbe and Goyle made no 
sense to me.)

Which is actually the problem in a nutshell.  I *liked* Draco.  I 
*liked* Snape.  Heck, I related far better to Draco, with his 
hysterics and wrong-footing and love of drama and his "Father 
says..." than to worshipped and adored Harry.  Draco was me as a 
kid.  So when JKR ended the book by saying everything I related to 
was the sort of thing only "bad" people could feel...  Yeah, I was a 
bit insulted.  And confused.  "So it's *bad* to love your parents, 
and it's *good* to stuff people in lockers?"

I've been working through the confusion ever since. <bg>

Betsy Hp