Ender vs. Harry SPOILERS for Ender's Game (WAS Re: JKR's Intent)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 178897

> Betsy Hp:
> DH killed Draco's story for me.  He ceased to make any sense as a 
> character and became a cardboard cut-out as far as I was concerned.  
> No one can hang in the sort of limbo JKR had him (and his family, for 
> that matter) hanging in without breaking. 

Pippin:
Huh? People go through all sorts of hell without breaking. Draco
didn't break in HBP, he grew up. He discovered he didn't like
being a cog in Voldemort's machine and threw a spanner in the
works. It doesn't mean he would come up with more spanners.

That he would just hope for the best and keep his head down for
a while seems very human to me, also that his initiative would 
re-assert itself after he'd gone back to school, away from 
Voldemort's scrutiny. 


> Betsy Hp:
> I saw Draco trying to get Harry's attention ("be my friend!") up 
> until the war bubbled up again and his family loyalties kicked in.  
> He went about it in a very "pulling Harry's pigtails" kind of way, 
> but he was pretty darn consistent, IMO.  Until his character ceased 
> to be, of course. <g>

Pippin:
In DH it became clear that in the world of the books, saying 
"mudblood" about someone's friends goes beyond pigtail-pulling 
and  schoolyard jeers. 


> > >>zgirnius:
> > HP also has this class of non-villains mistaken for villains, about 
> > whom we also get whys and wherefores (along with the information    
> > that they are not actually villains at all). Snape and Regulus to a 
> > lesser extent, fall into this group. 
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Huh.  I'd have said Snape and Regulus *were* that group.  

Pippin:
Sirius goes in that group. So does Karkaroff. 
Kreacher goes in that group too. And he survives, so Harry still
has to deal with him. And slave or no slave, Kreacher has shown 
himself well able to deal with those who do not treat him well.  


> 
> Betsy Hp:
> From the books. They're both Slytherin in the end.

Pippin:
But this is question begging, no?  Slytherins are villains because
they're bad to the bone, and they must be bad to the bone
because they're villains. Now, according to the dictionary, a villain
is someone typically at odds with the hero. 

Snape was never at odds with Harry in all the time that
Harry knew him, Regulus was never at odds with Harry at all,
Slughorn was never at odds with Harry, neither were Blaise
Zabini, Theo Nott or any of the four unnamed Slytherin
girls, unless you want to count ordinary schoolyard Jeering
which Harry gets from plenty of people who aren't Slyths.

Betsy Hp:
 When it came to  defending Hogwarts, Slytherin left.  And no, I didn't 
see any reasons  for them doing so, nor did I see our protagonist caring 
about why  they did so.  It's what you'd expect of Slytherins apparently.

Pippin:
Most of them left because they were underage. The reason given for
any of them to leave is that the castle defences will not hold without
reinforcement (which Slughorn helps to obtain.) We do not see
any proof of Voldemort's claim that the Slytherins joined him, and we
see refutation in that Slughorn was able to return to Hogwarts and
attack Voldemort himself. The Slytherins who left are not treated
any differently than the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws who left. 
 

> Betsy Hp:
> Harry defeated Voldemort in the end because he'd lucked his way into 
> the Elder Wand.  (Heh.  In the end, it really *is* the size of your 
> wand that matters.)
> 

Pippin:
Not really luck. If Harry had tried to keep the Elder Wand from 
Voldemort and failed, then Voldemort *would* have become its
true master.

Betsy Hp:
> However, this was something I'd not picked up on before:
> 
> "'What if I'm in Slytherin?'
> "The whisper was for his father alone, and Harry knew that only the 
> moment of departure could have forced Albus to reveal how great and 
> sincere that fear was." [ibid]
> 
> *Great* and *sincere*.  This isn't a kid worried he's going to end up 
> in the lame house.  It's a child terrified he's going to end up in 
> the *bad* house.  And how does Harry comfort him?  First he explains 
> that even a Slytherin can express Gryffindor virtues (bravery).  But 
> then he says that if it matters to Al (and obviously it does), Al can 
> choose his house.  And he doesn't just leave it at "choose".
> 
> "But if it matters to you, you'll be able to CHOOSE Gryffindor OVER 
> Slytherin." [ibid - emphasis mine]

Pippin:
Right. Al is clearly not worried about his ability to choose Slytheirn
over Gryffindor, so why should Harry need to reassure him about
that? Al can choose the house that he thinks is best for him, and
since  he clearly thinks that's Gryffindor, Harry won't argue with it.

I guess you're thinking Harry should have argued? But wouldn't that
make a hash of the message that it's wrong to make your 
dependents fight your battles for you? Harry  had enough of that when 
he was Dumbledore's pawn.

> > >>Pippin
> > who isn't sure what marrying your high school sweetheart
> > has to do with the nineteen-fifties
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Playing house.  Which was a big thing, I think, in the 1950's because 
> of the horrors of WWII and the Great Depression.  

Pippin:
AFAIK, the fifties in Britain were pretty grim, despite hopes of a new
Elizabethan Age. Most people were just trying to recover from the
damage of the war and there were still shortages of a lot of things.
I'm not sure why JKR would be trying to recreate the American 1950's,
or a legendary version of them, especially almost two decades after
her imaginary war. 

I thought she'd chosen a heroine's journey ending for all of her
heroes regardless of sex. The heroine gets a family, the hero gets
a kingdom and a wife. It's not about playing house, it's about playing
with literary conventions, IMO. 

Pippin