Responses to Marietta (was: Misc. responses, some quite old)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 169359

---  "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
> >
> > 
> > bboyminn:
> 
> > I'm not saying this is true, I am saying since we 
> > don't know the nature of Marietta's memory 
> > modification, that modification come open to
> > speculation. My version of speculated memory 
> > modification is just as valid as your version, and
> > both are consistent with known cannon.
> 
> Pippin:
> If  I am  to take a speculation seriously,
> then it has to be more than consistent with known
> canon. It has to not open up more plot holes than
> it plugs, ...
> 
> ...
> 

bboyminn:

What we are doing now is debating the definition of
'motivation'. I think Marietta's motivations were
at once simply and complex but they were contained.
There is a huge difference between having the 
personality and motivation that makes you become a
Death Eater and what Marietta did.

A person evil enough to become a Death Eater will 
simply find other ways to be evil even if they
forget why they joined the DE's. That's not true of
Marietta.


> BBoy:
> > I do however understand and share, to some extent,
> > people dislike for Hermione's actions. But we judge
> > this from the perspective of older, wiser, more
> > rational human beings. ... Teenager's are crazy;...
> 
> Pippin:
> Yes indeed. I just wish that Hermione would have
> taken that into account before visiting such a drastic
> punishment on one of her schoolmates, ...
> 

bboyminn:

I'm not trying to vilify anyone nor am I trying to 
forgive the other. What I am trying to do is establish
some fair and reasonable perspective to a polarized
discussion. Those who are /for/ Hermione are depicting
Marietta as a horribly evil person. Those who are 
/against/ Hermione are depicting her as a horribly evil
person, but both positions are wrong, and that is part of 
my point.

Marietta hasn't been killed, she hasn't had her arms, 
legs, or head chopped off. She is a perfectly normal 
girl who felt pulled and confused by conflicting 
loyalties and she made a mistake, and now because of it
she has 'spots' on her face. She still has arms, she 
still has legs, she hasn't been gutted, she still has 
her head.  

Hermione hasn't killed anyone, she hasn't chopped off
anyone's heads, arms, or legs. She's a smart, but too
smart, impulsive teenager who didn't look at the bigger
picture, and she made a mistake. 

There is no need to vilify Hermione anymore that their 
is to vilify Marietta. Again, I refuse to be more 
upset by the events than the characters themselves are.
I don't see Marietta going to the police, I don't see
Marietta's mother demanding that Hermione be thrown
into Azkaban. Marietta is perfectly capable of going
about her normal life, though admittedly with some
embarrassing spots which she seems to be covering up
with make-up. Marietta is not hold up atop of tall 
tower wailing with despair. She seems to be taking
the events in stride, though I'm also sure with a 
degree of general annoyance. 

Marietta seems for the moment to be taking a wait and
see attitude, though I'm sure she is doing her best 
to find a way to cure the spots. And, I think eventually
Hermione will see that this has all gone on long enough.
That she and Marietta are both on the same side, they
both made mistakes, and now it is time to forget petty
slights, and band together. I'm confident that when the
time is right, Hermione will do the right thing.


> Pippin:
>
> I think many people do not want to see Hermione suffer
> the consequences of  a ruthless and unjust
> action. ...
> 
> 

bboyminn:

Again, there is that overstatement, and that extreme 
position that I am trying to moderate. There is nothing
ruthless and unjust here. This is a school where kids
routinely sprout antlers and have cumquats coming out
of their ears, not to mention teeth and toenails growing
to extreme proportions. A few spots on your face are not
that big a deal, though a /bigger/ deal in this case 
since they haven't found a way to undo them. Yet, I have
no doubt that those trying to /undo/ them, are still
looking for a solution. They haven't given up and declare
this an evil permanent act, so I see no reason why we 
should declare it either evil or permanent.

If Marietta still has spots when she is 50, I'll be
willing to agree it might be permanent, and that it 
might now be starting to skirt the edges of evil, but
you'll hardly get me to agree before that.

Both Marietta and Hermione made mistakes, but you are 
allowed to make mistakes when you are a teen. That's 
how you, hopefully, learn not to make mistakes in the
future. You learn far more from making a mistake than
you do from you parent continually brow-beating you.

But I refuse to characterize either of the people or
their actions as EVIL. What I'm trying to do is to
get people to dial back their rhetoric and see things
in the proper perspective in the perspective of this
unique world where people are given shoe by their 
relatives, shoes that try to eat their feet.

Steve/bboyminn