Killing and Morality/Sarah Monette(SPOILERS) and JKR WAS: Re: JKR's Opinion

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 179976

 
> Betsy Hp:
> I mean that Harry's choice was never made hard.  He was never faced 
> with a situation where if he did not kill the war would be lost or a 
> loved one would be lost.  It was pacifism on the cheap, IMO. 

Pippin:
But he did face such a situation. He spared Pettigrew's life, and
Pettigrew killed Diggory and brought Voldemort back. The
reader can't help but think it's one of the reasons that Harry
takes Cedric's death so hard, despite Dumbledore's attempts to
reassure him. Harry also believed that Dumbledore's trust in Snape
had led to DD's death. But he still decided that he would spare
Stan Shunpike and that he would not start treating the Order as 
potential traitors. 

Harry has no way of knowing that his decision to spare
Stan or encourage the Order to go on trusting one another is
not going to lead to another disaster, so I don't see how you
can say these aren't valid tests. 

> 
> > >>Sally:
> > So because they would have suffered under a WW ruled by Voldemort, 
> > you consider their motives selfish?
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Hmm, yes to a certain extent (and I do realize it's an extreme 
> extent). But really, what I was most looking to was that their 
> actions were not completely *selfless*.  

Whereas the two characters 
> Alla and I have been chatting about, Felix and Mildmay, have both put 
> themselves at extreme risk (like a long drawn out death kind of risk) 
> to save people who's lives not only did not benefit theirs, but who 
> they also didn't really like that much.

Pippin:
Er, how is that different from the Trio deciding to save Draco and Goyle?
Those two lives did not benefit theirs, and they sure didn't like them
very much. And they were risking a very cruel death by spirits of
fire who like to play with their food. 

I don't like what Hermione did  to Marietta. But it shows what can
happen when society becomes corrupt. Much as Hermione despises
the way the WW is run, she still takes her moral cues from society
to a much greater extent than Harry (who is inner directed) or Ron
(who goes by his peers.) When the Ministry resorts to summary
justice and mutilation as punishment, so does she. 

Pippin
who read some Monette but didn't get into it, sorry