[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: DH7 - Scrimgeour

[Kathryn Lambert]

No: HPFGUIDX 179082

Adam wrote:
   
  <<<Huge snip>>>
  
And his [Scrimgeour's] personality, so different from Fudge's... I got the feeling
something was really going to happen with the ministry. I even got
the feeling that old Rufus might have knowledge of secrets we had not
been told yet... he certainly is reminiscent of Mad-Eye - scarred and
brusque, and there's probably a lot below the surface. Was he finally
going to align the ministry with Dumbledore? Would he reveal the
secrets Dumbledore's been hiding? Was he a Voldemort plant? Did he
have some radically different approach to the WW?

  <<<snip>>>
   
  
I was disappointed, because I felt that his introduction was so strong
that surely he would matter more to the story. When he was simply
killed off-stage, I was befuddled. I just didn't understand why such
a big deal had been made of him for him to not do anything worthwhile
or unique. It reminds me of my feelings about the time invested in
Draco in HBP for such a poor payoff in DH. I realize that Scrimgeour
is not nearly the character Draco is, but I'm curious whether anyone
else had a response like mine, or whether people simply expected him
to be and accepted him as this tertiary character with little impact
or purpose of character.

~Adam (prep0strus)

   
  ***Katie replies:
   
  I agree, Adam. I thought the not-so-subtle connections between Scrimgeour looking like a lion, and Harry being in Gryffindor, had some real significance. Like so many other things in HP, however, it turned out to be a lot of fanfare for nothing.
   
   
  I actually expected a big twist with Scrimgeour. I thought that Harry would discover that he was actually on Harry's side and that he would become an ally. I was expecting that in DH, we would discover that Scrimgeour was an undercover OotP member, working from inside the ministry and had been all along...or that Harry's bravery and determination would turn Scrimgeour into an ally. I certainly expected more than for him to be exactly what he seemed to be, which was a Fudge, just with a different personality, and then for him to be killed "off-screen"...ugh.
   
   
  I think the thing I was most disappointed in was that Scrimgeour was just like Fudge, really. He was a figurehead, with little real power. He wanted to use Harry for his own purposes, and he wanted to control the minds and bodies of the WW. He just went about it in a different way. That was incredibly UN-dynamic, and it could have been a much more interesting storyline, had Scrimgeour brought something new to the story...unfortunately, he just brought more of the same. 
   
   
  Katie

       
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