Portrayal of MoM in the series VERY LONG BEWARE

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178954


Carol earlier:
> 
> > At any rate, I rather like Fudge, weak and manipulable and capable
of self-delusion though he is. <SNIP>

> Alla:
> 
> I am just curious why you like him? Not as written character, 
because I think he is very well done, but if you look at him as
"person". I mean, let's assume I completely agree with you and he is
so weak and manipulable that he is just self deluded. I mean, I 
partially agree with you, but I think that Fudge has enough evil 
ideas of his own that he had a reason to be sucked in Umbridge and
Lucius' views and ideas and actions. 
> 
> I mean, would you respect RL politician like him? I swear I am not 
going to talk any RL politicians, but wouldn't you want stronger 
figure regardless of which ideas you would want him to represent?
<snip>

Carol responds:
Well, first, I don't think that the side of him that we see in OoP
(Harry's trial) is representative of the "real" Fudge, whom we see as
apparently kindly and well-intentioned (but weak) in CoS and PoA. I
can't blame him for thinking that the stories of dead men coming back
to life and so forth were rather far-fetched. he didn't have any solid
evidence that Voldemort was really back except Snape's Dark Mark, and
he was too shocked and repulsed by that to understand its meaning.
Like many people, he didn't want to believe that something as horrible
and seemingly impossible as Voldemort coming back was true. It took
actually seeing Voldemort to convince him. And then, of course, it was
too late for him to do anything except act as a kind of liaison to the
Muggles for his successor as Minister for Magic, Scrimgeour. IOW,
despite his feelings about blood superiority (and, IIRC, it was only
"half-breeds," wizards who were part giant or whatever that he
mistrusted; I don't recall his ever using the term "Mudblood"), a
prejudice shared by many people in the WW, not just Slytherins (I
don't think he was a Slytherin; he seems more like a Hufflepuff to
me), I think he's really a decent sort, just in over his head. (I
don't, of course, approve of using the Daily Prophet as an instrument
of government propaganda or sending Umbridge to Hogwarts, but "what
Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him--IOW, Fudge doesn't know the
real Umbridge, and I doubt very much that he knows about or would
approve of her horrible blood-letting quill.

But when I said that I rather liked him, I was thinking mostly of "The
Other Minister," in which he's trying to keep the Muggle PM informed
of developments in the WW that might affect the Muggles, and, unlike
Scrimgeour, he does it in a tactful and understanding way, and even
with a sense of humor. I liked his grace in explaining that he was no
longer Prime Minister and helping out the brisk and busy Scrimgeour,
who, I get the feeling, doesn't really think it's worth time and
trouble to deal with Muggles. I liked his turning the PM's teacup into
a gerbil (and not turning it back), his "kindly" explanation that
witches and wizards lived in secrecy all over England, his conjuring
whiskey as if he were the host (the PM thinks he's being offered his
own whiskey), his telling the PM that they were having the same week
(concerned about the same "accident" and "hurricane" and murdere), his
embarrassment at being mistaken about Sirius Black, even his twirling
his bowler hat so fast that it was a lime-green blur. I especially
like his smile and his kindly explanation that "the other side can do
magic, too."

Fudge seemed really human to me in that chapter, a likeable and
well-meaning diplomat doing his best to explain the inexplicable to a
mere Muggle like you and me. It's a purely subjective reaction. I felt
rather sorry for both him and the Prime Minister, actually, but it was
only Fudge that I actually felt affection for. Not at all what I felt,
of course, in reading about Harry's trial, at which point I merely
wanted to shake him (and, on a rereading, somehow alert him to the
danger of the poisonous toad he was allowing to write bad laws and
dangerous decrees). I don't see any evil in Fudge himself, just a
failure to see real evil in other people (notably the suave and
generous Lucius or the sweetly girlish, if toad-faced, Umbridge) and a
tendency to wishful thinking (he'd rather be threatened by a lying,
power-hungry Dumbledore than by a murdering, genocidal LV).

I hope that answers your question. I'm not trying to convince you,
just to explain why I rather like him and hope that he survived DH.
He'd be the perfect head of the Muggle Liaison office, given all his
experience with the Muggle PM.

Carol, who doesn't like *any* real-life politicians, doesn't associate
Fudge with any real person, and definitely wouldn't want him running
any country that she lived in